Opinion Exchange

For several months, the German power exchange prices have been moving in only one direction: straight up. In an interview with our electricity trader Jan Egidi, we take a closer look at this development and talk about the implications of this trend for the German renewables industry.

Most complex software applications need some form of configuration, often through a configuration file. The more complicated the app, the more difficult become the choices between offering flexibility and improving usability. Configuration is the solution to get the best of both worlds. However, getting it right takes knowledge, experience and discipline and often requires having made all the usual mistakes yourself and learned from them. Now, our team of developers and data-analysts has published their solution to this problem as an open-source python library: PyConfig.

When Next Kraftwerke expanded its operations to Belgium in 2014, one of its goals was to convince the transmission grid operator Elia to open its automatic Frequency Restoration Reserve (aFRR) market for all technologies. aFRR, also known as secondary reserve, has historically been provided by a handful of gas fired power plants operated by two or three companies.

Hendrik Sämisch and Jochen Schwill, founders and CEOs of Next Kraftwerke, on the partnership with Shell Renewables & Energy Solutions

We need more flexibility in the electricity grid, in the electricity market, in the entire electricity system. One can hear these demands repeatedly in connection with the energy transition. This is because an increase in the share of wind and solar in the electricity mix, which generate electricity in a volatile manner and can only be controlled to a limited extent, poses new challenges for the electricity grid.