HandelGrün: from greenfield to the power market.
A virtual power plant in the cloud: smart direct marketing for the energy transition.
Highlights
- Fully automated data pipeline for trading and settlement – currently under development for market launch in 2027
- Single source of truth for master and transactional data from a variety of external sources
- Low-code configuration for operational and regulatory processes in-house
- Scalable architecture for growing wind and PV portfolios as part of the energy transition
Fact Sheet
| CLIENT | HandelGrün GmbH & Co. KG |
| SECTOR | Energy |
| HEAD OFFICE | Hamburg | Germany |
| EMPLOYEES | 7 |
| Purpose | As an independent direct marketer, HandelGrün is driving the market integration of 100% renewable energy. |
Missions accomplished
- Applications
- Automation
- Connectivity
Smart technology
- VIRTIMO CLOUD
Smart data infrastructure for the greenfield.
Building a new business from the proverbial greenfield requires far more than just industry expertise – it takes an IT foundation that delivers from the very first second.
HandelGrün [literally “Trade Green”] was facing this exact challenge. As a newly founded direct marketer, the company will be aggregating wind and photovoltaic systems into virtual power plants to bring these volatile generators to the power market with optimized revenue, starting with the planned market launch in 2027. It is a role without which the further expansion of renewables would not be possible: a plant that cannot be marketed economically simply won’t get built.
The environment leaves no room for delays: in a 24/7 real-time business where feed-in volumes fluctuate heavily depending on the weather, any downtime in trading systems is felt immediately – in both economic and regulatory terms.
Data is essentially the key to aligning this more volatile generation with consumption. We can no longer simply burn fossil fuels when demand increases; instead, we have to consider both sides together. Highly available data processes are crucial at this point.
Dr. Björn Sossong
CEO | HandelGrün GmbH & Co. KG
From zero to ready in two weeks.
But how do you implement such a business-critical setup under enormous time pressure? For HandelGrün, it was clear early on that building their own server infrastructure would have tied up too many resources and noticeably delayed their market entry. Instead, the startup opted for maximum agility and relied on the VIRTIMO CLOUD as its digital foundation from day one. Around two weeks after the first strategic discussions, the basic architecture was set up – thus creating the prerequisite for HandelGrün to build its business in the first place.
Targeted enabling was at the center of the collaboration: in joint workshops, we empowered the HandelGrün team to use the platform independently and implement business processes themselves. “We started out with a strong functional and architectural focus to figure out which business capabilities HandelGrün actually needs in its role as a direct marketer,” recalls Martin Büscher.
After the first conversation, we readied the platform within two weeks. The colleagues at HandelGrün started implementing processes themselves from day one – we see ourselves as accelerators and enablers in this regard.
Stephan Bögel
Team Lead Cloud Solutions | Virtimo AG
The VIRTIMO CLOUD as a single point of truth.
To master the data volumes from the high-frequency energy market, the platform based on the VIRTIMO CLOUD acts as a central nervous system that consolidates all master and transactional data. In the process, master data from various specialized systems is seamlessly integrated into the architecture as a single point of truth: “On the platform, we bring together various external sources, use them to populate the master data system, and automatically derive new data objects such as generator time series,” explains Mika Krieg, consultant at Virtimo.
“With the various departments that exist in a company, you can’t have everyone maintain their own data storage,” emphasizes Martin Büscher, “otherwise you end up with three truths and not the one that counts. Especially in places where data changes quickly, we must ensure that the most up-to-date data is available to work with at every point.” This creates the prerequisite for a fully automated data pipeline that will enable the precise execution of all processes between day-ahead and intraday trading on the power exchanges and final settlement.
HandelGrün is starting out with its first plants, but is already preparing for strong growth. Our platform provides the necessary flexibility for this, allowing further service providers for algo trading, forecasting, or new tariff models to be seamlessly integrated in the future.
Martin Büscher
Business Development | Virtimo AG
A foundation that grows with the energy transition.
Using the low-code service IGUASU, the integration and automation component of the VIRTIMO CLOUD, the developers at HandelGrün are currently building the processes through which the company will begin marketing its first plants in early 2027.
The architecture is designed to scale from the very beginning: new business areas and additional services can be integrated on a flexible basis. What grows is the portfolio – and the platform grows with it. As a result, scaling not only affects one company, but ultimately the amount of renewable generation that finds its way into the market in an economically viable way.
Interview:
Virtimo and HandelGrün
at Welt der Wunder.
Please note: The interview was conducted in German.
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