How industry can buy electricity more cheaply with the help of an algorithm

At first glance, the situation looks hopeless for an electricity trader like Christian Hövelhaus. For months he has had to watch the prices on the Leipzig power exchange climb; compared to 2020, they have increased almost fivefold in 2021. But Hövelhaus sees things differently: “A lot of wind power in the grid often depresses stock market prices radically; There are almost always time windows when electricity in Leipzig becomes cheap for a short time, mostly at night, when there is little demand and a lot of wind, ”says the head of the Essen electricity broker Esforin, who has developed a business model from this. Hövelhaus and his 40 colleagues – engineers, programmers and professional electricity traders – have programmed algorithms with which their customers can obtain electricity in such a way that they benefit from the short-term effects.