Starting in 2026, RWE will take over the market optimisation of a 50MW or 100MWh virtual battery from Terralayr in Germany for five years and integrate it into its energy trading.
The capacity comes from several battery storage systems in the control area of the transmission system operator 50Hertz.
They are aggregated into a virtual battery via a flexibility platform developed by Terralayr.
For the provision of the storage capacity, Terralayr receives a fixed annual remuneration within the framework of a so-called “tolling contract”.
Tolling agreements in the energy sector are special contractual arrangements in which a plant operator gives a third party (the tolling partner) the opportunity to market battery capacity, while the plant operator takes over the technical management.
Unlike conventional tolling contracts, where the tolling partner connects directly to a single physical battery storage system, this is a so-called “multi-asset capacity toll” – a structure in which several individual battery storage systems are connected via Terralayr’s flexibility platform.
RWE will be connected to Terralayr’s platform to access the storage capacity.
Bart Beljaars, head of commercial asset optimisation for Continental Europe at RWE, said: “Batteries are becoming increasingly important for a stable energy supply.
“Terralayr’s virtual battery perfectly complements our own, rapidly growing battery and generation portfolio.
“Through the cooperation with terralayr, we can provide flexibility from RWE’s own batteries as well as from customer batteries even better where it has the greatest benefit.”
Mikko Preuß, chief commercial officer at Terralayr, said: “A stable revenue expectation is a crucial building block for the financing of battery storage projects.
“Through the cooperation with RWE, we can establish a new market standard with fixed remuneration structures and thus give storage investors access to these stable revenues.
“We offer customers of storage capacity such as RWE all the advantages of a physical battery storage system without our partner having to worry about the physical systems.”
Thanks to the structure of a “Multi-Asset Capacity Toll”, operators of smaller battery storage systems can also conclude long-term purchase agreements with fixed remuneration rates for the first time, RWE said.
This was previously reserved for large storage systems.
At the same time, the performance of the storage systems is improved, their service life is extended and the operational risk is reduced by distributing them across multiple storage systems.
Access via a single technical connection also facilitates the integration of new systems and ensures uniform performance standards – even with very different storage systems.
Both companies want to enable the marketing of further storage capacities of Terralayr in Germany on the basis of the contract that has now been concluded.
In addition, they are working on solutions to be able to offer fixed-price products to other battery investors and operators via Terralayr’s flexibility platform.
RWE develops, builds and operates battery storage systems in Europe, Australia and the USA.
The company currently operates battery storage projects with a capacity of around 370MW in Germany and has battery storage systems with a capacity of more than 1200MW in use worldwide.
RWE has decades of experience in the optimisation and marketing of pumped and battery storage systems.
Terralayr was founded in 2022 and is a developer, owner, operator and aggregator of battery storage systems in Germany.
With its cloud-like flexibility platform, the company offers flexibility services to power producers, traders, grid operators and large electricity consumers such as data centers, with terms ranging from 15 minutes to 15 years.
This allows customers to take full advantage of grid-scale battery storage without having to invest in physical assets.