Why flexibility is essential in today’s energy system
Electricity supply and demand have always changed. What is changing is the scale and speed of those fluctuations.
More solar and wind generation means electricity production increasingly depends on weather conditions. At the same time, electrification is changing demand as businesses adopt electric processes, charging infrastructure and other technologies.
This creates periods with abundant electricity and periods when supply is tighter. Prices can fluctuate accordingly and can even become negative. Differences between expected and actual production or consumption can create imbalance, while limited grid capacity can restrict how much electricity can be transported at certain locations.
As these dynamics increase, the ability to respond becomes more valuable.
A controllable asset gives you options. You may be able to adjust production, shift consumption or store electricity for another moment. Whether doing so creates commercial value depends on your asset, market position, technical restrictions and the opportunities available to you.
Solar and wind installations produce according to weather conditions, but their output can in certain situations be reduced.
Temporarily reducing production is known as curtailment. It can be relevant when continuing to feed electricity into the market is commercially unfavourable or when applicable grid conditions require flexibility.
The flexibility therefore lies in the ability to reduce generation when appropriate, rather than simply producing whenever the resource is available.
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A battery provides flexibility in both directions.
It can charge, discharge or keep capacity available for a later opportunity. This makes it possible to move electricity and flexible capacity between different moments.
A battery therefore creates options that renewable generation alone does not have. The commercial challenge is deciding when to use each option.
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Some industrial processes do not need to consume exactly the same amount of electricity at every moment.
Cooling installations, pumps, compressors and other controllable processes may have room to temporarily increase, reduce or shift electricity consumption within agreed operational boundaries.
This is the basis of demand response: using existing operational flexibility to respond to relevant energy-market or grid conditions.
Discover Flex ServicesWhat does flexibility mean for renewable producers?
For renewable producers, maximising value is increasingly about more than generating as many megawatt-hours as possible.
Solar and wind production can be high at the same time across a market. When electricity supply exceeds demand, prices can fall significantly and may become negative. Differences between forecast and actual production can also affect a producer's market position.
Flexibility provides additional ways to respond.
A solar or wind installation may be able to reduce production during unfavourable periods. A battery can store electricity and make capacity available at another moment. Hybrid installations can combine generation and storage, creating additional decisions around when to produce, store or feed electricity into the grid.
Depending on the asset, location and market requirements, eligible flexibility may also participate in balancing or congestion-related mechanisms.
Not every asset can access every opportunity. The relevant strategy depends on its technical capabilities, grid connection, commercial agreements and market position.
Virtual Power Plant
Scholt Energy connects these assets to the relevant energy markets through its Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This allows producers to:
- Monetise flexibility instead of losing revenue
- Access markets that are otherwise unavailable to individual assets
- Reduce exposure to congestion-related restrictions
The result is a new layer of revenue on top of existing production income.
A structured approach to spreading volumes over time and markets to reduce risk and increase predictability.
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Continuous market monitoring, price modelling and proactive buying signals to support decision-making.
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Monitoring consumption, identifying peak loads and aligning procurement with real usage patterns.
Where possible, we unlock value from flexible assets and help manage congestion risks — now and in the future.
Use battery capacity to move electricity and flexibility between different moments and respond to changing market conditions.
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Turn controllable production or demand into commercially managed flexibility through services such as curtailment and demand response.
Discover Flex ServicesWhere does the Virtual Power Plant fit in?
A flexible asset provides the physical capability to respond. Technology is needed to turn that capability into coordinated action.
Scholt Energy's Virtual Power Plant provides an enabling layer between flexible assets and relevant market opportunities.
Flexible asset → connectivity and data → Virtual Power Plant → market access and optimisation → activation
The VPP can connect renewable generation, battery storage and flexible consumption and support their coordinated use. It is therefore not the flexibility itself, nor is it the same as Flex Services. It is technology that enables relevant flexibility to be managed and optimised.
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Could flexibility be relevant for your asset?
You may have commercially relevant flexibility if you:
- own or operate solar or wind generation;
- operate battery storage;
- combine renewable generation and storage;
- have industrial processes whose electricity demand can be shifted;
- operate substantial controllable charging infrastructure;
- experience limitations in available grid capacity;
- are exposed to periods of low or negative electricity prices;
- combine electricity production, consumption and storage at one site.
Having one of these characteristics does not automatically mean an asset can participate in a particular flexibility market.
Its potential depends on factors such as controllability, available capacity, operating restrictions, grid connection, location, existing contracts and applicable market requirements.
The first step is therefore to establish where your flexibility is and what you can realistically do with it.
Find out where your flexibility can create value
Your asset or operation may already contain flexibility. The next step is understanding how much is genuinely controllable, which restrictions apply and where that flexibility could be commercially relevant.
Scholt Energy can assess your assets, production or consumption profile, existing contracts and operating requirements to identify the opportunities that fit your situation.
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