Course Overview

The commercial model associated with renewable power is undergoing rapid change.

The increasing use of wind and solar power is creating greater exposure to capture-price erosion, negative prices, cannibalisation, congestion and increased intraday volatility. At the same time, the rapid growth of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) is creating new possibilities for storing, shaping and optimising renewable electricity.

The PPA market is also evolving. Alongside conventional long-term, single-asset, pay-as-produced arrangements, more sophisticated structures are emerging that incorporate storage, shaping, portfolio solutions, hourly matching and firmed clean power.

This 3-day intensive masterclass examines the commercial relationships between renewable generation, PPAs, BESS and power markets.

Rather than considering PPAs and batteries in isolation, the programme explores how they are increasingly being used together and what this means for developers, buyers, traders, investors and financiers.

Throughout the programme, participants consider four central questions:

• Where does value come from?
• Who assumes the risk?
• How should that risk be managed?
• What form will the next generation of renewable power agreements take?

Who Should Attend?

This masterclass is designed for professionals involved in the development, commercialisation, trading, financing or procurement of renewable power, including:

• Renewable-energy developers
• Power traders and originators
• PPA professionals
• Corporate energy buyers
• BESS developers and operators
• Utilities and energy suppliers
• Energy portfolio managers
• Commercial and business development professionals
• Infrastructure and renewable-energy investors
• Project finance professionals
• Risk managers
• Energy-intensive industrial companies

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:

• Understand the commercial economics of wind and solar generation
• Analyse the impact of negative prices, capture prices and cannibalisation
• Compare alternative PPA structures and pricing mechanisms
• Identify and evaluate major risks embedded within PPAs
• Understand principal BESS revenue streams and how they interact
• Evaluate merchant, optimisation and tolling structures
• Understand the impact of increasing BESS penetration on future revenues
• Compare standalone and co-located battery projects
• Assess the commercial logic of solar + BESS and wind + BESS
• Understand emerging 24/7 clean-energy and hourly-matching structures
• Evaluate shaped, firmed and load-following renewable products
• Structure an integrated renewable + BESS commercial proposition

Day One — Renewable Power Economics & PPAs

The Changing Economics of Renewable Power

• How wind and solar projects create commercial value
• Contracted versus merchant revenues
• Renewable penetration and wholesale price formation
• Zero and negative electricity prices
• Curtailment and grid congestion
• Intraday volatility and renewable exposure

Capture Prices & Cannibalisation

• Market price versus renewable capture price
• Understanding capture rates
• Why increasing renewable generation depresses capture prices
• Solar versus wind cannibalisation
• Impact on project revenues and valuation
• Managing long-term capture-price exposure

PPA Commercial Structures

• Corporate versus utility PPAs
• Physical and virtual structures
• Pay-as-produced versus shaped and baseload products
• Fixed-price versus market-linked structures
• Contract duration and merchant tails
• Commercial objectives of generators and buyers

Understanding PPA Risk

• Price risk
• Volume and production risk
• Profile and shape risk
• Balancing risk
• Basis risk
• Curtailment and negative-price risk
• Counterparty and credit risk

Case Study — Who Really Takes the PPA Risk?

Participants determine where the main risks sit, whether those risks can actually be managed or are merely transferred, and whether the resulting arrangement is commercially sustainable and bankable.

Day Two — BESS Economics, Revenue Models & Commercial Structures

Why Storage Changes Power-Market Economics

Participants examine:

• Storage as flexibility and optionality
• Charging and discharging economics
• Volatility as a source of value
• The relationship between price spreads and battery returns
• Renewable intermittency and storage
• The changing role of storage in increasingly renewable power systems

How Does BESS Earn Money?

• Day-ahead and intraday arbitrage
• Balancing markets
• Ancillary services
• Capacity revenues
• Revenue stacking
• Optimising across different markets
• Revenue cannibalisation as BESS capacity increases

From Merchant BESS to Contracted Revenues

• Merchant BESS
• Optimisation and route-to-market agreements
• Tolling structures
• Revenue floors and revenue sharing
• Fixed versus variable remuneration
• Dispatch and optimisation rights
• Allocating market risk between investor, operator and optimiser

Standalone versus Co-Located BESS

• Standalone batteries
• Solar + BESS
• Wind + BESS
• Shared grid connections
• Using batteries to capture curtailed generation
• Moving renewable production into higher-value hours
• Impact on renewable capture prices
• When co-location creates genuine incremental value

BESS Investment Challenge

Participants compare alternative battery investment opportunities with different durations, revenue models, market exposures, contract structures and risk profiles.

Teams consider which BESS project to invest in and the commercial grounds for that decision.

Day Three — The Next Generation of Renewable Power Agreements: PPAs 2.0

24/7 Clean Energy & Hourly Matching

• Moving from annual towards hourly matching
• 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy
• Matching renewable production with actual consumption profiles
• The role of storage in improving hourly matching
• Commercial implications for generators and buyers

Solar/Wind + BESS PPAs

• Emerging renewable + storage PPA structures
• Solar + BESS and wind + BESS
• Charging and dispatch rights
• Moving generation between hours
• Shaping renewable output
• Storage revenues inside and outside the PPA
• Who takes the optimisation value?

From Pay-as-Produced to Firmed Clean Power

• Shaped renewable products
• Firmed clean power
• Load-following structures
• Combining wind, solar and storage
• Portfolio approaches
• Using market purchases to fill residual generation gaps
• Allocating remaining shape and balancing risk

The New Corporate Buyer

• Rapidly growing data-centre and AI electricity demand
• Reliability and firmness requirements
• 24/7 clean-energy ambitions
• Renewable additionality versus actual hourly supply
• How sophisticated corporate demand could reshape future PPAs

What Lies Ahead of the PPA Today?

• Shorter and more flexible contracts
• Multi-technology structures
• Portfolio PPAs
• Renewable generation + storage as an integrated product
• Moving from buying renewable MWh towards buying clean electricity when it is actually required

Final Commercial Structuring Challenge

Participants work in teams to develop a commercial strategy for a solar + BESS project aimed at supplying a large corporate customer.

The teams then present and justify their proposed commercial structures.

The programme concludes by considering whether PPAs are evolving from agreements for renewable MWh into agreements for clean power when customers actually need it.

Training Approach

This is a highly interactive programme combining:

• Expert instruction
• Current market examples
• Commercial case studies
• Group exercises
• PPA analysis
• BESS investment analysis
• Deal structuring

The focus throughout is on understanding the commercial decisions underlying renewable power transactions, rather than simply describing the technologies or contractual arrangements.

Participants are encouraged to consider transactions from the perspectives of different stakeholders and assess how changing market conditions affect value, risk allocation and commercial strategy.