Investing in a Battery 2027–2030: What Is Changing and What to Base the Decision On

More offers, bigger promises, less certainty in the numbers. Based on real-world studies: where the value of battery systems is moving and why active management of your own energy is becoming a condition of profitability.

Seminar Content:

Battery storage has become one of the most frequently offered investments in the energy sector, and the return projections in vendor offers are increasingly optimistic. At the same time, the market in which a battery earns its return is changing rapidly: growing solar generation, dynamic tariffs and the large volume of new batteries entering the system are reshaping market relationships, prices and revenues. Drawing on real-world experience – numerous technical and investment studies of battery storage and operational experience in managing energy portfolios with battery systems – the seminar provides clear guidance for the decision to invest in battery storage.

What Is Changing by 2030:

• Continued growth of solar generation and expected growth in consumption (EVs, HVAC, data centres)
• Geopolitical uncertainty (general energy shortage in the EU, high prices, need for local sources)
• What happens to negative prices, spreads and flexibility revenues once a large volume of battery systems enters the market?
• Dynamic tariffs, grid fees and the regulatory framework
• Lessons from other countries (Germany, UK, Belgium, Slovenia, Bulgaria)

Where Analyses Most Often Go Wrong:

• Projecting today's flexibility prices over the next 15 years
• Potential for additional earnings on the wholesale market
• How charging and discharging efficiency affects the usable price spread on the market
• Cycle-dependent maintenance costs and neglected degradation
• Risks related to the costs of grid connection, operation, grid fees, permits and similar
• Oversized systems

Where the Value Is Today and Where It Will Be Tomorrow:

• Today: most of the value from flexibility and potentially peak demand – a look at a typical scenario
• Tomorrow: adaptive day-to-day strategies and new products aimed at maximising earnings
• For which portfolios a battery will always pay off

Energy Management as a Condition of Profitability:

• How can a company that is not an energy business earn through active energy management?
• How to realise earnings/savings: in-house, ESCO model, external control?
• A simulated example of earnings/savings with different cycling strategies and different control methods
• Why a deterministic approach is the best
• What to base the decision on: consumption profile, financing model, controllability of consumption, tariff model / sales model

Target Audience:

This seminar is designed for:

• Board members and business development directors of companies with significant energy consumption: industry, retail and hospitality chains, logistics, tourism
• Finance directors and procurement leads deciding on an investment or an ESCO contract
• Technical, maintenance and energy managers
• Owners of solar and wind plants considering adding storage
• Investors and financial institutions evaluating battery storage projects
• Market participants on power exchanges

Speakers:

• Antun Andrić, M.Sc.E.E., is Director of the Market Department at the Croatian Transmission System Operator (HOPS), with more than 20 years of experience in the power sector. He actively participates in the green transition of the power system, primarily through the development of the flexibility market, research and development projects, participation in the design of the regulatory framework, and the introduction of new technologies and processes into regular TSO operations. He is a member of numerous national and international working groups (ENTSO-E Market Committee, convenor of the ENTSO-E subgroup for the Annual Report on Load-Frequency Control, CORE groups, National CIGRE Committee C5 – Electricity Markets) and has participated in the preparation of numerous national and international research projects (FP7, Horizon 2020).
• Zlatko Ofak, M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, is Head of Business Development and Innovation and co-owner of Uprise d.o.o., with more than 10 years of experience in developing digital products for European transmission system operators and energy companies. His work focuses on applying advanced algorithms, mathematical optimisation and artificial intelligence in solutions for critical European energy infrastructure. In recent years his focus has been on energy storage: dispatch optimisation, sizing and investment feasibility studies. Under his leadership, Uprise is developing STORM, a platform for the analysis, monitoring and management of portfolios with energy storage, automated algorithmic trading on the electricity market and aggregation. In 2026 Uprise received the "Hrvoje Požar" award for innovation in energy for STORM.