Steag Iqony Group & suena energy: AI-driven storage marketing for maximum profitability

Many battery storage systems are still operated in isolation in individual markets—often with untapped potential. At the same time, requirements are increasing: greater volatility in the electricity market, more complex market mechanisms, and strict regulatory frameworks. To succed in this environment, new, flexible strategies are needed.

Imagine a battery storage system that independently analyzes market activity and optimally adjusts its trading strategy in less than five minutes—to maximize revenues, minimize risks, and offer full transparency.

This is exactly what we are implementing together with our partner, the Steag Iqony Group. We combine the best of both worlds: The Steag Iqony Group provides a part of their powerful storage capacities and, with decades of experience, takes on balancing group responsibility and technical operations management. suena energy uses its AI-based Energy Trading Autopilot to control intelligent, cross-market optimization – dynamically, in compliance with regulations, and in a way that conserves battery power.

The result: A reference project proving that existing stroage systems can already be made ready for the markets of tomorrow.

Iqony Steag Group: The Steag Iqony Group ensures that electricity and heat reliably reach people and industry – today and in the future, in a climate-friendly and sustainable way. Headquartered in Essen, the company unites two strong pillars of the energy transition: Steag Power ensures secure energy supply with its power plants and the development of modern energy hubs. Iqony develops and operates innovative plants that generate green energy – for households, businesses, and municipalities. Around 5,500 employees worldwide are working step by step to make energy supply climate-neutral. For more than 85 years, the Steag Iqony Group has stood for competence, responsibility, and energy.

Volatility as an opportunity – Why storage needs new strategies

The Steag Iqony Group is one of the leading storage operators – its capacities are essential for a flexible, renewable energy system. For nine years, the company has been operating six battery storage systems, each with 15 MW / 15 MWh. While these systems were long focused on FCR marketing, the increasingly volatile electricity market has changed the game: responsiveness, price sensitivity, and market integration are becoming rapidly more important.

Together with us, the Steag Iqony Group is proactively preparing for this new reality. The aim: a multi-market strategy that opens wholesale markets as a new revenue channel. Our Energy Trading Autopilot dynamically adjusts schedules and optimally leverages all 15-minute trading intervals, based on precise forecasts and live data for a share of Steag Iqony Group’s storage portfolio. Thus, the stabilizing storage asset transforms into a flexible one – not fearing market volatility, but embracing it.

“Together with the Steag Iqony Group, we demonstrate how AI-driven storage marketing sets new standards. Our collaboration stands for innovation, trust, and a clear focus on an economically viable and sustainable energy transition.”

Dr. Lennard Wilkening, CEO von suena energy

Autonomous, transparent, profitable: The Energy Trading Autopilot in action

suena energy ensures that the Steag Iqony Group’s storage assets involved in the project are always optimally deployed across relevant energy markets. Our core areas of action:

 

1. Dynamic Dispatch Optimization: Our AI-based autopilot generates precise dispatch plans, tailored to current market prices, forecasts, and the technical condition of the systems. Each storage tranche is deployed profitably at the right market, at the right time.

2. Multi-Market Orchestration: Every day, our system makes over 50,000 algorithmic trading decisions, covering all wholesale market segments:

   Intraday auction: 15-minute auction trading for the following day

   Continuous intraday trading: ongoing 15-minute block trading up to 5 minutes before delivery

   All segments are seamlessly connected, regulatory and technical requirements        are reliably met, and revenues are continuously maximized.

3. Real-Time Transparency via Dashboard: Transparency builds trust. Our intuitive web dashboard visualizes all relevant information – trading decisions, price data, revenues, and settlements. Whether historical analyses, live monitoring, or scenario testing – everything is available at the click of a button.

4. Lifetime Optimization through Simulation: Alongside trading control, we continuously simulate degradation and efficiency losses of the battery systems. The results are directly integrated into operating schedules, extending battery lifetime by up to three years – without additional hardware, purely through data-driven optimization.

Success through partnership

Through close collaboration between Steag Iqony Group and suena energy, a holistic solution is created that meets technical, regulatory, and economic requirements alike. Together, we lay the foundation for scalable, highly efficient storage marketing.

This project also highlights the crucial role of specialized partnerships in making existing infrastructure future-ready. Steag Iqony Group’s operational expertise and long-standing system responsibility, combined with suena energy’s AI-based trading technology, enable scalable and profitable battery operations.

Successfully combining sustainability and profitability

Our project actively advances the energy transition. Through intelligent storage management, we enhance grid stability, accelerate the integration of renewable energies, and significantly reduce dependence on fossil peaker plants. Thanks to smart optimization of existing assets, we have greatly improved the economic viability of battery storage – without costly new construction projects.

Together, we have developed a tailor-made solution that ensures maximum profitability while actively contributing to the sustainable energy supply of tomorrow.