These projects can not only hold their own in a competitive market, but in some cases exceed the revenue performance levels set by standalone BESS, finds enterprise technology partner for complex BESS and renewables portfolios, Arenko.

Arenko’s Nimbus software is increasingly being adopted to automate management and trading of co-located solar-plus-storage and wind-plus-storage assets – with 15 of these sites now operating using the platform.

Several of these projects have already demonstrated significant gains in export availability and grid connection utilisation, highlighting the significant value that can be unlocked by combining advanced optimisation, machine learning and real-time market integration.

At one UK solar-plus storage site, Nimbus has utilised export availability of around 83 percent and increased grid connection utilisation from just 8 percent to 29 percent. This has more than tripled the productive use of the grid connection and placed the asset among the top 10 percent of all UK battery projects for annualised revenue performance this year. In March this year, more than 98 percent of the asset’s traded volume was automated.

Wind-plus-storage projects are less predictable than hybrid solar, and subject to significant export constraints during high winds. However, Arenko’s work with a leading utility at a co-located UK wind project has illustrated that these constraints can be navigated through a sophisticated optimisation approach that captures value without breaching network limits.

At this project, Nimbus uses a combination of automated trading algorithms and a flexible constraints engine. Wind forecasts are integrated directly into the optimisation process, allowing the system to dynamically allocate export capacity between the wind farm and the battery while continuously trading across markets. Export availability sits at around 70 percent, however through sophisticated automated trading, the asset still performs in line with industry benchmarks - maximising grid utilisation and delivering on the overall business case for co-location. Last year, 88 percent of its traded volume was executed automatically.

“While the inherent complexity of sharing a grid connection has cast some doubt on the ability of co-located projects to deliver revenue performance on a par with standalone BESS, the data we’re seeing shows that these projects are already generating incredible returns” said Rupert Newland, CEO, Arenko. “For utilities, IPPs and funds with significant ambitions in the flexibility market, these results should be highly encouraging. The numbers also show the proven impact of an advanced, automated trading approach. They underline the critical importance of building a robust ‘digital backbone’ to manage complexity and underpin future operations – whether to handle the intricacies of challenging co-located sites or to manage broader multi-technology portfolios, trading across multiple geographies and markets.”

Arenko’s Nimbus software delivers market-leading asset control, performance monitoring and fully automated trading capabilities that enable portfolio owners to succeed amid complexity. Having originally been incubated in the UK BESS market, adoption of the platform by operators of standalone and co-located renewable energy assets is increasing rapidly as these users enhance their in-house operational capabilities.

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