Energy Unplugged by Aurora

This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re joined by Steffen Schülzchen, Founder and CEO of Entrix, and Constantin Nicklas, Head of Sales at Entrix, for a discussion on how grid congestion is reshaping battery storage investment across Europe. They join Claudia Gunter, Senior Research Lead at Aurora, to focus on why network constraints have become a defining challenge for batteries, and how flexible connection models, smarter optimisation, and evolving market rules could help unlock capacity faster. The discussion explores how congestion, redispatch, and ramping limits affect battery revenues in practice, and what this means for system efficiency, investors, and decarbonisation outcomes.

Steffen founded Entrix in 2021 after advising European utilities on the energy transition at McKinsey & Company, and now leads the development of an intelligent trading and optimisation platform for battery assets. Constantin brings a commercial and investor perspective from over a decade in financial asset management at Deutsche Bank, where he worked closely with energy-focused investment structures. Together, they offer a grounded view on how regulatory design, grid access, and market signals are shaping the next phase of battery deployment in Europe.

You will learn:

Why grid congestion has become a binding constraint for battery deployment in Europe, especially in Germany.

How connection rules, redispatch, and ramping limits shape real-world battery revenues and risk.

What flexible grid access and smarter optimisation could unlock for storage investors and system operators.

How market design and regulation will need to evolve to scale batteries efficiently and cost-effectively.

This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re joined by Steffen Schülzchen, Founder and CEO of Entrix, and Constantin Nicklas, Head of Sales at Entrix, for a discussion on how grid congestion is reshaping battery storage investment across Europe. They join Claudia Gunter, Senior Research Lead at Aurora, to focus on why network constraints have become a defining challenge for batteries, and how flexible connection models, smarter optimisation, and evolving market rules could help unlock capacity faster. The discussion explores how congestion, redispatch, and ramping limits affect battery revenues in practice, and what this means for system efficiency, investors, and decarbonisation outcomes.

Steffen founded Entrix in 2021 after advising European utilities on the energy transition at McKinsey & Company, and now leads the development of an intelligent trading and optimisation platform for battery assets. Constantin brings a commercial and investor perspective from over a decade in financial asset management at Deutsche Bank, where he worked closely with energy-focused investment structures. Together, they offer a grounded view on how regulatory design, grid access, and market signals are shaping the next phase of battery deployment in Europe.

You will learn:

Why grid congestion has become a binding constraint for battery deployment in Europe, especially in Germany.

How connection rules, redispatch, and ramping limits shape real-world battery revenues and risk.

What flexible grid access and smarter optimisation could unlock for storage investors and system operators.

How market design and regulation will need to evolve to scale batteries efficiently and cost-effectively.

This week on Energy Unplugged, we bring you a live panel discussion from Aurora’s Energy Transition Summit, moderated by Camilla Palladino, Deputy Head of Lex at the Financial Times. She is joined by Jonathan Brearley, CEO of Ofgem; Dame Dawn Childs, CEO of Pure Data Centres Group; and Keith Anderson, CEO of Scottish Power, for a wide-ranging debate on whether Britain’s energy transition can remain on course amid political uncertainty, rising bills and growing scrutiny of net-zero commitments.

Drawing on perspectives from regulation, infrastructure delivery and energy-intensive demand, the panel strikes a note of cautious optimism on the UK’s clean power ambitions, while highlighting the barriers that must be addressed. The conversation explores the need for faster planning and regulatory reform, greater policy stability to sustain investor confidence, and a grid fit for a 21st-century economy - capable of supporting growth in AI, data centres, manufacturing and life sciences. The discussion also examines affordability, questioning how network and policy costs are recovered, and why accelerating grid investment could be one of the most effective ways to cut system costs and ease pressure on consumers.

You will learn about:

Why planning speed and regulatory agility are now critical to delivering the energy transition.

How policy instability risks undermining investor confidence at a time of major capital need.

The growing tension between rising electricity demand and an overstretched grid network.

What grid reform and cost allocation could mean for energy bills and long-term system efficiency.

This week on Energy Unplugged, we’re joined by Ana Marques, Executive Board Member at EDP. She joins Ana Barillas, Aurora’s Managing Director for Iberia & LatAm, to explore how flexibility, grids, and system resilience are becoming central to the next phase of the energy transition, alongside continued growth in wind and solar. 

Ana sits on EDP’s Executive Board and oversees the group’s global renewable generation platform, alongside responsibility for digital, technology, and safety. Drawing on EDP’s international footprint, she shares how scale, technology diversification, and disciplined value creation underpin the company’s strategy, and why renewables must increasingly deliver not just clean energy, but also reliability and system services.

You will learn:

Why flexibility, grids, and resilience are now critical pillars of renewable-heavy power systems.

How renewables and storage are increasingly contributing to ancillary services and system stability.

What lessons recent system stress events offer for operating low-carbon power markets.

How electrification, data centres, and hydrogen are reshaping future power demand and market design.

This week on Energy Unplugged, Jesse Hetema, Aurora’s Head of the Netherlands and Belgium, is joined by Simon Bushell, Founder and CEO of Sympower, to explore why flexibility has become a critical pillar of Europe’s energy transition. They discuss how rising price volatility, negative prices and grid congestion are shifting the focus from pure decarbonisation towards system resilience, and why demand-side response and batteries are now essential to keeping renewable-heavy power systems stable and investable.

Simon founded Sympower in 2015 and has grown the company into a leading provider of flexibility services across Europe, with a strong presence in the Nordics and Greece. Drawing on his experience working with industrial customers, he explains how flexibility is unlocked in practice – from identifying low-cost demand-side opportunities to optimising batteries across multiple markets – and why digital platforms, advanced dispatch and supportive regulation are key to scaling flexibility across Europe.

Listeners will also hear how tools like Aurora’s Flex subscription help market participants understand flexibility opportunities and price dynamics, and how CHRONOS supports the optimisation and valuation of battery assets across volatile power markets.

You will learn:

Why flexibility is now essential to Europe’s power system, as congestion and curtailment become structural challenges.

How flexibility services and BESS optimisation generate value across multiple European power markets.

What storage owners and large energy users need to get right to maximise multi-market revenues from flexibility.

How market design, grid constraints, and regional differences are shaping the future of flexibility at scale in Europe.