Powering the Grid: Data Science in Energy Storage and Trading

Dear Data Enthusiasts,

Join us this time at TU the Sky on the 9th of March to explore how data science and machine learning are powering the energy transition — from battery storage investment to energy volume forecasting and electricity trading for distributed energy resources.

This time, we will have 3 speakears and a round table of discussion.

Comparative Case Study: Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Malaysia, Germany and United Kingdom – BESS Pilot Market Assessment
The presentation compares five grid-scale BESS pilot markets—Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Malaysia, Germany, and the UK—using a standardized project-finance and credit-risk framework to make IRRs and NPVs comparable. It models 15-year assets with consistent capex/opex, leverage rules (higher for contracted revenue, lower for merchant), and country risk, inflation, FX, and degradation impacts. Saudi Arabia offers the highest certainty and strong returns via sovereign contracted payments. Brazil is contracted but weakened by inflation/FX and immature market design. Malaysia is large but has blended, hard-to-hedge activation risk. Germany and the UK offer higher upside through merchant revenue stacking but face volatility and regulatory uncertainty.

Sebastian Meyer, entrepreneur
Sebastian Meyer is an energy transition professional with expertise in battery storage, power markets, and project finance. He recently completed the BatteryMBA executive programme (Cohort 14), deepening his understanding of the battery value chain, storage technologies, lifecycle economics and emerging business models, and co-authored a BESS pilot market assessment presented to industry peers. Based in Vienna, Austria, Sebastian positions himself at the nexus of energy finance, flexibility markets, and power system integration, with a focus on renewables and grid-scale storage.

Energy Volume Forecasting
This presentation explores how data science supports energy trading decisions in the context of dynamic electricity tariffs. It begins with an introduction to aWATTar’s dynamic tariffs, which allow customers to consume "Energy in Sync with Nature," benefit from market fluctuations, and participate in the green energy transition.
The session then outlines the trading workflow behind tariff-based energy procurement, highlighting where uncertainty and risk emerge. Building on this context, it motivates the need for accurate total energy forecasting as a critical input for trading decisions.
The second half of the talk dives deeper into the forecasting problem, covering data flow, feature engineering, modeling strategy, and deep learning architecture used to predict aggregated energy demand and production for trading purposes. It concludes by sharing lessons learned from deploying forecasting models in production and their impact on more efficient, data-driven energy trading.

Ekin Kaan, Machine learning engineering at aWATTar
Ekan is a Machine Learning Engineer at aWATTar, where he focuses on clustering, forecasting, and data-driven energy solutions. With a background in mathematics and theoretical physics, he enjoys uncovering patterns in data and turning them into actionable insights that create business impact. At aWATTar, he develops forecasting solutions that support smarter energy trading and contribute to a sustainable energy transition.

Topic, tba
Chris Bernkopf, Podero
Chris Bernkopf has a degree in physics and data science. My journey as a founder started by selling t-shirts at 18. I burned my fingers in ed-tech and worked in e-mobility before building a procurement tool (YC W21). Since 2022, I've been building Podero, an electricity trading software for electric devices (DERs) for the world's leading utilities. www.podero.com

Roundatble moderator:
Patrick Fodor, marbl.
Patrick is a physicist from Vienna, committed to energy trading, and developing intelligent energy trading systems for a decade. In his free time, Patrick creates and teaches courses on topics such as Smart Contract Security, Solidity, Golang, and Quantum Computing. Professionally, former Algo Development Teamlead in Trayport and E*Star. Currently, Patrick is Co-Founder and CTO of YQAPP and marbl.energy. At marbl.energy, they are optimizing renewable energy assets such as Wind and Photovoltaic systems in combination with energy storage systems.

🎤🎤 Open Mic
We are going to open up the stage after the talks for community announcements. If you'd like to announce something, open this slide deck, make sure you are signed in with a google account, and click "View Only" -> "Request Edit Access". Explain in the text box what you want to announce, and we'll give you edit access to the slide deck.
🎤🎤

We’ll have some food and drinks after the event.
Please note that during the event, photos might be made and later posted on VDSG's social media page. Please notify us if you do not agree.
Attention attendees with food allergies. Please be aware that the food and drinks provided may contain or come into contact with common allergens, such as dairy, eggs, wheat, soybeans, tree nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, or wheat.

Best,
The Organizer Team