AleaSoft Energy Forecasting, July 15, 2026. The volatility of energy markets and the weight of electricity costs are driving large consumers to adopt more active risk management strategies. Hedging, PPAs, demand flexibility, self-consumption and batteries are gaining relevance to improve the predictability and competitiveness of energy-intensive industry.
The volatility challenge for energy-intensive industry
The challenges faced by large consumers and energy-intensive industries were one of the focal points of the analysis panel at the Spanish version of webinar number 68 hosted by AleaSoft Energy Forecasting, featuring Pedro González, Director General of AEGE, the Spanish Association of Large Energy Consumers, and Roger Font, Managing Director Project Finance Energy at Banco Sabadell, together with Oriol Saltó i Bauzà, Associate Partner at AleaSoft, and Antonio Delgado Rigal, CEO of AleaSoft, as moderator.
Volatility in energy markets remains one of the main challenges for large consumers. Pedro González highlighted the importance of continuing to develop tools that improve the competitiveness of energy-intensive industry in Spain. Market developments, geopolitical uncertainty, regulatory changes, ancillary services and electricity costs directly affect the competitive capacity of these companies, making predictability a priority need.
Forward hedging with room for improvement against hourly risk
One of the central topics of the panel was the evolution of hedging. Large consumers have been increasing their forward contracting in recent years, driven by a highly volatile price environment. For AEGE members, average hedging through forward contracting stands at around 40%. A large part of that hedging is linked to the solar product, which poses limitations for industry.
The solar PV product provides hedging during the hours of highest solar production, which tend to coincide with the market’s lowest prices. For many industrial consumers, the greatest risk is concentrated in the afternoon and evening hours, when exposure to higher prices can affect consumption decisions. This situation reinforces the need for products better suited to industrial profiles and for contractual structures that allow better risk management.
Storage as an optimisation lever
In this scenario, battery storage can play a relevant role. Batteries allow energy to be shifted, optimise self-consumption, reduce exposure during hours of high prices and improve demand management. In the presentation ahead of the analysis panel, Oriol Saltó i Bauzà highlighted that large consumers are moving away from being passive agents that consume when needed, to becoming more active market participants, able to manage their consumption, their hedging and their flexibility.
Batteries and PPAs: supply profiles better matched to industrial demand
The addition of batteries can also help PPAs adapt better to industry’s needs. The traditional solar PV product does not always fit industrial consumption patterns, which tend to require profiles closer to baseload. The incorporation of energy storage can help to better adjust the delivery profile and open up new opportunities for long-term supply contracts better suited to energy-intensive consumers.
Contractual complexity, an outstanding challenge for battery deployment
The debate also showed that the use of batteries by large consumers requires more education and experience. A battery can add value in different areas, such as peak shaving, self-consumption management, balancing services or improved supply quality, but it cannot optimise all these uses at the same time without a clear strategy. Contracts must therefore precisely define what the battery will be used for, how it will be operated and how the benefits will be shared between the parties.
Contractual complexity is one of the major challenges for the development of this type of solution. Unlike other renewable assets, a battery requires active operation and a sophisticated market strategy. For large consumers, this means understanding what risks they take on, what benefits they expect to obtain and what role optimisers, energy retailers or developers will play in managing the asset.
A new stage in energy management
The analysis panel also addressed the importance of ancillary services, a cost item that is difficult to cover within electricity costs and that introduces additional volatility for industry. Greater deployment of storage could help to increase competition in these services and, with it, improve system efficiency and reduce some of the pressure on consumers. Hedging, PPAs, self-consumption, flexibility and batteries are all part of the same strategy to reduce risks, gain predictability and improve competitiveness.
AleaSoft Energy Forecasting analysis for large consumers
With more than 27 years of experience in energy market forecasting, AleaSoft Energy Forecasting supports large consumers and energy-intensive industries in designing hedging, storage and contracting strategies adapted to a growing volatility environment. AleaStorage, the division of AleaSoft Energy Forecasting specialising in energy storage, provides revenue estimates for standalone batteries and batteries in hybridisation with renewables and self-consumption. Its services also include the analysis of optimal participation strategies in energy markets and ancillary services, the estimation of revenues derived from participation in capacity markets, as well as the modelling of long-term price and volatility scenarios. These analyses make it possible to assess project profitability, reduce risks associated with investment and support solid, bankable financing decisions.
Source: AleaSoft Energy Forecasting.
