E-world impressions 2025
E-World is as crowded as ever, with many familiar faces, people I meet regularly there. As usual, attendees are having meetings, exchanging opinions, engaging in discussions and having fun…
What’s different this time? First of all, any effects of COVID-related disruptions have fully disappeared. E-World feels just like it did before the pandemic—bustling with people actively seeking solutions, offering innovations, networking, and having casual conversations.
What are the key topics of discussion? Political uncertainty and its potential impact on the energy transition are significant concerns. US-based companies focused on PPAs and renewables are expressing increasing worries about the American renewables market and considering shifting their focus to Europe, where they see greater opportunities in the coming years. For the same reason companies offering risk management solutions are pleased with the heightened interest to their offering at E-World.
Regarding modern technologies, particularly AI-based applications, leading ETRM vendors remain skeptical about AI’s role in the ETRM space. However, they recognize the need to explore its potential to avoid missing out on future developments. While there is general interest in AI, and customers are asking questions, many vendors still believe AI adoption in this sector is largely driven by hype. Nevertheless, market research on AI technologies is attracting attention everywhere, and some companies are coming up with innovative ideas—such as AI-based agent support for complex manual workflows in various use cases, as demonstrated by FIS.
Another clear trend is the emergence of new portfolio management and trading solution providers. Many of these new vendors specialize in short-term trading for renewable assets or offer simplified portfolio management solutions tailored for new market entrants, such as independent power producers (IPPs) and project developers (PDs). With very simple scope of their portfolio management solutions, such as managing short-term trades and PPAs, providing real-time positioning and PnL, they provide sufficient functionality for those market entrants, who are using third parties for trading. Larger IPPs and PDs with their own trading desks would also find solutions specially designed for trading renewable assets and batteries on intraday, day ahead and reserve markets. Established asset analytics firms like cQuant or Decision Tree are integrating battery optimization models into their offerings.
Compared to previous E-World events, there is a noticeable rise in companies entering the short-term trading business for third-party renewable assets. These companies aggregate renewable production and battery energy storage capacity from multiple IPPs and PDs, trading them on reserve markets and wholesale short-term markets while sharing profits with asset owners. This business model, pioneered by Enspired, has obviously proven successful, and many new companies are now following suit.
The ETRM replacement market remains active, particularly among Tier 3 energy companies looking to replace their mid-size legacy solutions. The range of options available for this has improved significantly in recent years. Many new vendors with modern technology but still basic ETRM functionality would fit the requirements.
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