E-Flow, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kansai Electric Power, started trading power from grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the balancing market this month, the company announced on September 18, 2024.
With that, the company’s platform, which it developed jointly with the AI-start-up ExaWizards, now works to optimize profitability of BESS facilities by deciding when to trade in the wholesale and when in the balancing market. The system creates daily bidding, as well as charging and discharging, plans. E-Flow plans to also start participating in the capacity market to optimize monetization of the BESS facilities under its management even further.
E-Flow did not disclose the capacity it currently operates. However, it said it is aiming to operate 1GW of grid-scale BESS by 2030.
While the installed BESS capacity in Japan is still limited, it is growing due to subsidy programs among other reasons. Companies including Mitsubishi HC Capital Energy, Renewable Japan, and Sinanen have, so far, entered the market among others. Correspondingly, the demand for trading solutions able to optimize BESS power trading among the wholesale, balancing, and capacity markets is set to grow.
In addition to optimizing the operation of BESS on behalf of asset owners, E-Flow also aggregates demand response and renewable generation assets.
