The energy storage company Mine Storage acquires Expektra, a Swedish energy SaaS-company with products for energy trading optimization, ancillary service trading optimization and grid optimization. Their AI-based software solutions will ensure revenue optimization for mine storages, other energy storages and energy assets with complex business models.
Our energy system is changing fast. The trend is clear – we will have a more diverse set of energy facilities that contributes to the balance in our energy system. Energy and capacity will be traded more frequently, in more fractions and closer to delivery. The consequence is that the trading will need to become automized and self-learning as it will be too complex to be handled by the human brain.
Founded in 2010, Expektra is a well-established energy SaaS-company with customers such as Vattenfall, Helgeland Kraft, Storuman Energi and Energy Key. They help power utilities to navigate this change by performing and optimizing energy trading and short-term resource planning.
Mine Storage is an energy storage company that develops and builds mine storages – grid-scale pumped hydro facilities in decommissioned mines. As part of their business model, Mine Storage will perform the asset management of each mine storage facility which includes optimizing the operation and revenues of each facility. Energy storage facilities such as a mine storage can receive revenues from many different sources such as energy trading, several ancillary services and other types of services to grid owners, large energy producers or to consumers.
Expektra brings in proven expertise and technology that will help us build a complete trading and optimization solution for Mine Storage and other companies that own energy assets with complex revenue models”, says Thomas Johansson, Co-founder and CEO of Mine Storage. “More companies with flexible resources will be able to play a role in enabling the sustainable energy transition as a result of this transaction”.
For the past year, Mine Storage has collaborated with Expektra to develop a software that use machine learning (ML) to optimize the complex trading strategy that energy storage facilities (such as a grid supporting mine storage) require when in operation. With the software, Mine Storage can test and prove the business case for each mine storage-facility before it is built as well as optimize its trading once in operation. The successful collaboration resulted in both management teams and shareholder groups seeing the potential for a green synergy by bringing the companies under shared ownership. The transaction was handled by Setterwalls.
“Mine storages are a great example of flexible energy assets that require complex trading strategies to maximize its utilization and return on investment. By joining the Mine Storage group we see opportunities for speeding up our business development” says Niclas Ehn, Co-founder and CEO of Expektra. “We are excited to accelerate our product development and to soon be able to provide the market with a complete solution for optimizing the trading for these types of energy assets”.
“This is a green synergy. Together we can ensure a stabile energy system that will be able to accommodate more intermittent resources. Our solution will optimize against grid restraints and maximize the utilization rate of energy assets” says Thomas Johansson.
For more information, contact:
Thomas Johansson, co-founder and CEO of Mine Storage International, thomas.johansson@minestorage.com, +46 70 696 78 00
Niclas Ehn, Co-founder and CEO of Expektra, niclas.ehn@expektra.se, +46 76 788 87 99
