Renewable electricity is inexpensive and clean, but also less predictable than drawing a gas turbine. It turns out that it is both a problem and an opportunity.
Most solutions to the problem of intermittentness consist in associating the solar panels and wind turbines with batteries, which store the power for use when the sun sets or the wind discourage. The batteries act as a kind of coverage against these natural disturbances.
But dear physical assets are not the only way to cover the risk. Another markets are. A startup, Electronxis building an exchange in which buyers and sellers can exchange electricity. The objective, said the company, is to help the two parties manage risk volatility and coverage, which withdraws part of the financial uncertainty of renewable energies.
To achieve this goal, Electronx has raised $ 10 million in a follow -up tour led by Systemiq Capital with the participation of Equinor Ventures, Shell Ventures and Innovation, told Techcrunch. The new investment follows a seed of $ 15 million that the startup collected in June 2024.
For the most part, the electricity market in the United States is highly regulated, built on hypotheses formed when electricity has been widely generated by coal power plants. They ran day after day, forming a stable base on which the more expensive electric power plants reacted to the fluctuations of demand.
But as solar and wind entered the market, they have turned some of these hypotheses on their heads. Unlike large fossil fuel power plants, renewable power can be activated and extinct quickly. The batteries add to the cost, but offer even more speed and flexibility to respond to demand changes.
These qualities have opened the door to new ways of negotiating, maintains Electronx.
The exchange offered by the company would allow electricity suppliers and consumers to buy and sell capacity in blocks of 1 megawatt on an intra-hour or schedule for the current day and the next day. Electronx is still awaiting the approval of the Commitoy Futures Trading Commission, but if that occurs, the more granular blocks of the company could reduce the “negotiation requirements of several million implicit dollars” present in the electricity markets of Today, the company said.
The objective is to allow small businesses to play a more important role in the electricity markets, similar to the way in which retail merchants can participate in the stock market. “By taking advantage of more precise financial products, renewable assets should see better return profiles and faster recovery periods,” the company said in a press release.
