Powering the Energy Transition With Solar, Batteries and Smart Solutions for Residential and C&I Applications

Recording of Tuesday, May 06, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Conferences 2025 | Conference Program | Language: English | Duration: 13:12 .

Spain's Energy Market Challenges Highlighted by European Grid Isolation and Reserve Shortages

Dina Darshini and Jon Ferris from LCP Delta explore the dynamic solar energy landscape in Europe, highlighting trends over 25 years. Dina notes a surge in utility-scale solar farms driven by national green electricity goals, alongside urban-friendly balcony PV systems and collective self-consumption schemes that democratize access to solar power. Despite large-scale plant growth, distributed behind-the-meter systems remain vital but face challenges as traditional incentives decline amid changing market dynamics like negative wholesale prices during sunny periods. This underscores an urgent need for enhanced grid flexibility and smarter integration strategies. Jon points out the lagging flexibility compared to recent solar expansions; while larger assets provide current services such as hydropower, smaller ones lack effective communication channels or price signals necessary for participation. He advocates improving consumer engagement through better pricing mechanisms within tariffs and standardized European-wide frequency containment reserves (FCR) aimed at boosting demand-side asset involvement. The text contrasts Sweden's significant investment in FCR with Spain’s approach where it's mandatory without remuneration—discouraging battery infrastructure investments. When isolated from Europe's grid system recently, Spain experienced increased market volatility due to unpreparedness for such events. The discussion highlights interconnected markets' inability to achieve a single wholesale electricity price due to physical constraints and congestion issues on grids across countries with less impact experiencing lower volatility partly because of their coupling strategies. Additionally emphasized is developing virtual power plants (VPPs), crucial for integrating consumers into energy markets via activities like asset monitoring/optimization while managing financial flows effectively within this ecosystem—a topic further explored by various industry participants contributing insights into evolving energy systems.

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Speaker

Jon Ferris
Head of Flexibility and Storage
LCP Delta
United Kingdom

Dina Darshini
Head of Solar & Battery
LCP Delta
United Kingdom

Talk of session: Truly Smart Solar Prosumers: Managing Energy Bills & Supporting the Grid

With electricity tariffs normalizing after the energy crisis, the rush to buy rooftop solar systems at any cost has ended. However, thanks to falling product costs, residential and C&I rooftop PV remain the largest segment of new PV installations in the EU. The rise of plug-in/balcony solar systems further highlights the growing interest in building-attached solar solutions.This shift presents new challenges: Prosumers are integrating various electrification technologies to maximize self-consumption and reduce their power bills, while energy systems and regulations struggle to accommodate the surge in variable power generators. This session will provide: Insights into the latest solar electrification strategies for distributed energy needs Technical solutions and business models to transform self-consumption systems into grid-supporting assets Discussion on regulatory requirements for sustained distributed solar growth as a key pillar of the energy transition.

Further Talks of this session: