Smart Energy Asset Control: What Is It and What Are the Benefits?
Smart Energy Asset Control: What Is It and What Are the Benefits?
The energy markets are evolving rapidly, and Elexys is evolving with them. While negative prices and imbalance costs once had little impact, they have now become a daily reality. The strong growth of renewable energy brings significant benefits, but it also requires energy contracts and systems that evolve alongside the market.
With an EMS (Energy Management System), you can respond flexibly to fluctuations in the energy market. A control system manages, among other things, the production of your solar panels, the charging and discharging of your battery or electric vehicle, and other energy assets. This allows you to avoid negative prices, reduce imbalance costs, and gain better control over your peak demand.
The exact benefits of an EMS depend on the assets available within your business. One important prerequisite, however, is having a dynamic energy contract.
Scenario 1: Businesses with only a PV installation
For businesses that only have solar panels, the primary objective is to avoid injecting electricity into the grid during periods of negative prices. These occur when there is an oversupply of renewable energy on the grid. In such situations, you may have to pay to inject electricity into the grid, while being compensated for consuming electricity.
An EMS can automatically control your inverters, reducing PV production whenever market prices turn negative.
Scenario 2: Businesses with a battery
With a battery, both energy production and consumption can be managed much more intelligently. In this scenario, the focus is on maximising self-consumption:
- Excess energy is first stored in the battery instead of being injected into the grid.
- When your PV installation is not generating enough electricity, the battery supplies the stored energy. This enables you to use low-cost energy during expensive periods, such as the morning and evening peak hours.
- In addition, peak demand is reduced, resulting in further substantial cost savings.
Once self-consumption has been optimised, the system can also take advantage of day-ahead market prices. Since these prices are known one day in advance, the control system can automatically determine the optimal moments to charge or discharge based on market conditions. The system continuously takes your company’s energy needs into account, ensuring that sufficient energy is always available and that expensive electricity purchases from the grid are kept to a minimum.
Flexibility Becomes Essential
The past few years have demonstrated just how sensitive energy prices are to geopolitical events. During the day, when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, Belgium can be almost entirely self-sufficient in electricity generation. However, energy consumption does not always coincide with the moments when renewable energy is being produced.
This is why flexibility is becoming increasingly important. A battery combined with an intelligent control system gives businesses the ability to manage their energy consumption actively and strategically. In today’s volatile market conditions, this is no longer a luxury but a smart investment in stability and cost efficiency.
Elexys and Companion Energy
Elexys has partnered with the Ghent-based software company Companion Energy. Thanks to this collaboration, our customers can benefit from preferential access to their services.
With this new service, Elexys customers can now have their installations managed in a simple, transparent, and cost-effective way. By combining the expertise of both companies, we maximise savings through peak shaving and self-consumption optimisation, without adding complexity for the customer. As a result, energy management becomes both more efficient and more financially rewarding.
Contact Elexys today and discover the benefits!
Image credit: Image by redgreystock on Freepik
