Habitat Energy EVOLVE Battery and Renewables Optimisation

Habitat Energy was founded in Oxford, England, in 2017 and is a portfolio company of Quinbrook. With more than 130 people across the UK, Australia and the USA, it optimises and trades battery storage and renewable energy assets on behalf of owners, combining data science with expert power traders.

Its EVOLVE service comes in versions for renewables, battery storage and co-located assets. It provides probabilistic forecasts of prices and fundamentals, asset-specific dispatch instructions, asset models covering degradation, temperature and warranty limits, and 5-minute bid and offer construction. Human-in-the-loop traders manage day-ahead and real-time positions, scheduling and outages, while lifecycle support covers revenue simulation, warranty design, project finance support, hedging, tolling, firm offtake and revenue floors. Customers include Octopus Australia and S4 Energy.

• Probabilistic forecasting: AI forecasts of prices, fundamentals and asset utilisation.
• Asset modelling: accounts for degradation, temperature and warranty constraints.
• Custom optimisation: 5-minute bid and offer construction aligned with asset limits.
• Human-in-the-loop trading: day-ahead and real-time position management and scheduling.
• Market interface: asset integration, market registration and route to market.
• Lifecycle support: revenue simulation, hedging, tolling and revenue floor structures.

Developers of solar plus storage projects in Vietnam could use revenue simulation to size batteries and structure financing. Owners of co-located BESS could optimise charging from solar and discharging into evening peaks as the wholesale market matures. Investors could compare revenue floor and tolling structures before committing capital.

Asset owners gain market access and trading expertise without building an in-house trading desk. Probabilistic forecasts and 5-minute optimisation help capture value across wholesale, balancing and ancillary markets while respecting battery warranty limits. Tolling, firm offtake and revenue floor options give lenders more predictable cash flows. Habitat reports 5.5 GW of contracted assets.

Battery storage is being deployed at grid scale alongside solar and wind, and its revenue depends on trading across volatile markets, which has created a specialist optimiser segment. Vietnam's Power Development Plan VIII targets significant battery storage and the competitive wholesale market is evolving, so owners of future BESS and hybrid plants will need optimisation and trading capability.

Habitat Energy was founded in 2017 in Oxford by Dr Andrew Luers, Phil Robinson and Ben Irons, and opened its Australia and New Zealand office in Melbourne in January 2020. It is a portfolio company of Quinbrook, employs more than 130 people and reports 5.5 GW of contracted assets across the UK, Australia and the USA.