Why strategy is key: Lessons from real-world benchmarks

Maximizing value from battery energy storage systems (BESS) isn’t just about having the right hardware – it’s about executing the right strategy. Lennard Wilkening, CEO and co-founder of Germany’s suena energy, explores what makes standalone BESS profitable in increasingly competitive and volatile market, and what real-world benchmarks, such as suena energy’s monthly revenue update, reveal about the role of dynamic multi-market optimization.

From ESS News

While the case for batteries as enablers of flexibility is widely accepted, the path to profitability remains far from settled. As more projects enter the pipeline, competition is intensifying, placing growing pressure on operators to extract value from volatile market conditions.  In this increasingly more complex market landscape, the ability to generate stable returns is no longer a given, but the product of strategic precision and operational excellence.

This is especially true for standalone battery storage systems. Like fully merchant colocated assets, they are fully exposed to market prices and system signals. What distinguishes standalone systems, however, is their operational autonomy: they are grid-connected but not dependent on wind or solar plants. This allows them to participate freely across energy and ancillary service markets.

In theory, this autonomy allows for maximum flexibility. In practice, it demands constant re-evaluation of trading priorities, regulatory rules, and asset constraint, such as degradation, state of charge (SoC) limits, and ramping profiles. Each day presents a different set of variables: auction timings, capacity pricing, intraday spreads, and redispatch signals all evolve dynamically, and frequently in conflict with one another.

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