Optimizing Battery Bid Strategy with Yes Energy

As we transition to increased carbon-free energy generation, we’ll need more storage resources to pick up the slack where renewables can’t. In the meantime, most battery operators function as operating merchants, trading in the markets day-to-day to optimize their revenue, and providing the electric grid with much-needed resiliency.

The day before every trading day, one of the most important questions that needs to be answered is whether or not to bid in the ancillary service market or save some MWh to bid in the energy market. 

Since batteries are such a flexible resource, they’re very well suited for both ancillary services markets and energy-only markets. With ancillary services markets being the less volatile of the two, their revenue is all but guaranteed. However, revenues may not be extravagant. Hence, our question of where to bid. 

At Yes Energy, we’re uniquely positioned to provide the information that helps battery operators make better decisions surrounding their bid strategy and generally be more efficient in their daily workflow. In this paper, we’ll look at how Yes Energy’s tools allow us to navigate the following trends:

• market-wide analysis
• local geospatial analysis 
• historical analysis.

Using a hypothetical battery plant in PJM, we’ll consider a step-by-step approach of each trend to decide whether to bid into the energy market tomorrow. This type of analysis could be applicable to any asset owners trying to optimize their bid strategy. 

By Meghadeep Roy Chowdhury
Market Analyst
Yes Energy