Distributed flexibility is becoming a foundational part of the energy system. We’re making sure every asset can be part of it.
We’re excited to announce our integration with Flower, an energy tech company that has built a platform to control and optimize energy assets. By enabling broad access to energy markets, Flower maximizes value for the grid while generating revenue for asset owners. Flower has long been a key player in optimizing and trading large-scale battery systems and is now expanding its offering to include smaller energy resources.
Why This Matters Now
“DERs are playing an increasingly important role in the energy system, where individual units act as micro power plants supporting the grid when and where needed. This segment is a key part of the transition toward a more stable and cost-efficient energy system”.
– John Diklev, CEO of Flower
This development reflects a broader shift in the energy system. As more DERs come online, value increasingly depends on the ability to aggregate and coordinate smaller assets at scale. API-based connectivity plays a key role in this transition, reducing integration overhead and enabling faster onboarding of new device types and partners.
What We’re Building Together
Flower is now expanding the scope of market-based participation to a broader set of distributed energy resources, from residential batteries to EV charging infrastructure and beyond. Starting with Polarium’s home battery, this setup enables participation in energy markets through cloud-based integration, without requiring additional on-site hardware.
A growing ecosystem is forming around this model, with actors such as Flexecharge, Markedroid, Rebel and Emulate integrating their respective technologies to enable asset connectivity and market access, each contributing to different parts of the value chain.
A Clear Direction
From our perspective, this reinforces one clear direction: distributed flexibility is becoming a foundational part of the energy system, and the ability to aggregate and coordinate smaller assets at scale is where value is increasingly created.
About Emulate Energy
Emulate Energy builds deep-tech software that turns residential energy devices into a reliable flexibility resource for utilities and aggregators. Our software is live in programs with utilities across Europe and the US.
Follow us on our blog and LinkedIn to stay up to date as we build the future of residential flexibility.
Sweden has moved forward with pausing the mandatory rollout of demand-based network tariffs set to take effect January 1, 2027. The decision is being watched closely across Europe. Sweden has long been considered a leading market for energy flexibility and smart grid policy. But pausing a tariff model does not remove the underlying cost of grid congestion and high peak demand.
As we highlighted in our previous article, “Demand Charges: A Wake-Up Call for Swedish Energy Providers”, the real issue isn’t the specific tariff model itself; it’s whether households and businesses have the tools to manage these costs efficiently, or simply pay them invisibly. Sweden’s pause underscores that these costs remain, regardless of how they are collected.
The scale of the problem
Europe’s grids are under pressure unlike anything seen before. According to the European Commission, Europe needs €584 billion in grid investments by 2030. European electricity consumption is expected to grow by around 60% by 2030. Already, 40% of Europe’s distribution grids are more than 40 years old. And BCG estimated grid upgrade costs at $5,800 per electric vehicle, if charging is not optimized.
When you buy an electric vehicle, the network operator delivering electricity to your home needs to invest $5,800 to handle the extra load if charging is not managed. And that is just the beginning. Your heat pump, rooftop solar panels, and battery storage (BESS) all add to the grid’s burden as well.
What many people miss
Pausing a specific tariff model does not remove the cost. It only changes how the cost is collected.
In practice, it will still be recovered through one of three broad channels: more cost-reflective tariffs such as demand charges or power-based fees; higher general network charges for everyone combined with flexibility incentives or flexibility procurement; or oversized grid expansion whose costs are socialized across electricity bills and taxes.
There is no alternative universe where the laws of physics disappear.
And Europe is not abandoning cost-reflective pricing. ACER, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, has been clear: network tariffs must be fair, cost-reflective, and send signals for more efficient use of the grid. The direction of travel across Europe is toward greater, not less, granular cost exposure. Sweden’s pause is a political delay, not a policy reversal.
So the real question is not whether a specific Swedish tariff model survives in its current form.
The real question is: how do we maximize value for consumers while reducing peak loads, increasing flexibility, and using the electricity grid more efficiently?
Emulate’s view
At Emulate, our view is straightforward. The winning architecture is not built around any single tariff model. It is built around the capability to optimize across the entire value stack, whatever form that stack takes.
Emulate already optimizes against custom tariffs, spot prices, demand charges, local flexibility markets, and ancillary service and energy markets. The platform supports both cloud APIs and local gateways in a hybrid configuration, and is already operating across markets with different tariff structures and regulatory frameworks. That real-world diversity is exactly what prepares us, and our customers, for what comes next.
As 2026 and 2027 bring further regulatory movement across the Nordics and broader Europe, the ability to adapt optimization logic quickly will separate the platforms that future-proof their customers from those that simply react.
Regardless of how costs are exposed to consumers, we align optimization to their reality. That is what future-proofing actually means.
“You can pause a tariff. You cannot pause the cost of peak demand. The question is not whether the cost exists. The question is whether households get the tools to optimize around it, or simply pay it in a less transparent way.”
Prefer to read in Swedish?
A Swedish-text version of this article can be found below the English version.
Bakom Sveriges tariffpaus: Varför problemet med nätinvesteringar inte försvinner
Sverige har länge betraktats som en ledande marknad för energiflexibilitet och smart elnätspolitik. Att pausa en effekttariffmodell tar inte bort den underliggande kostnaden för trängsel i nätet och höga effekttoppar, utan kostnaden förflyttar sig bara.
Som vi lyfte fram i vår tidigare artikel, ”Demand Charges: A Wake-Up Call for Swedish Energy Providers”, är det verkliga problemet inte själva tariffmodellen; det handlar om huruvida hushåll och företag har verktygen för att hantera dessa kostnader på ett effektivt sätt, eller bara betalar dem utan insyn. Sveriges paus understryker att dessa kostnader kvarstår, oavsett hur de tas ut.
Problemets omfattning
Europas elnät är under ett tryck som aldrig tidigare skådats. Enligt Europeiska kommissionen behöver Europa 584 miljarder euro i nätinvesteringar till 2030. EU:s elanvändning väntas öka med cirka 60% till 2030. Redan nu är 40% av Europas distributionsnät mer än 40 år gamla. Och BCG uppskattade nätuppgraderingskostnader till 5 800 dollar per elbil om laddningen inte optimeras.
När du köper en elbil behöver nätbolaget som levererar el till ditt hem investera 5 800 dollar för att hantera den extra belastningen om laddningen inte styrs. Och det är bara början. Din värmepump, solceller och batterilager (BESS) påverkar också nätet.
Det är många som missar poängen
Att pausa en viss tariffmodell tar inte bort kostnaden. Det förändrar bara hur kostnaden tas ut.
I praktiken kommer den fortfarande att tas ut genom någon av tre breda kanaler: mer kostnadsreflekterande tariffer som effektavgifter; ökade nätavgifter för alla kombinerat med flexibilitetsersättningar eller upphandling av flexibilitet; eller överdimensionerad nätutbyggnad vars kostnader socialiseras via elräkningar och skatter.
Det finns inget alternativt universum där fysikens lagar försvinner.
Och Europa överger inte kostnadsreflektion. ACER, EU:s byrå för samarbete mellan energiregleringsmyndigheter, har varit tydliga: nättariffer ska vara rättvisa, kostnadsreflekterande och ge signaler för mer effektiv användning av elnätet. Riktningen i Europa går mot större, inte mindre, detaljerad kostnadsexponering. Sveriges paus är en politisk fördröjning, inte en politisk kursändring.
Så den verkliga frågan är inte om en specifik svensk tariffmodell överlever i sin nuvarande form.
Den verkliga frågan är: hur maximerar vi värdet för konsumenterna samtidigt som vi minskar effekttoppar, ökar flexibiliteten och använder elnätet mer effektivt?
Emulates syn
På Emulate är vår syn enkel. Den vinnande arkitekturen byggs inte kring en enda tariffmodell. Den byggs kring förmågan att optimera mot hela värdestacken, oavsett vilken form de tar.
Emulate optimerar redan mot anpassade tariffer, spotpriser, effektavgifter, lokala flexibilitetsmarknader samt stödtjänst- och energimarknader. Plattformen stödjer både moln-API:er och lokala gateways i en hybridlösning och är redan verksam på marknader med olika tariffstrukturer och regulatoriska ramverk. Den verkliga mångfalden är precis det som förbereder oss och våra kunder för det som kommer härnäst.
När 2026 och 2027 för med sig ytterligare regulatoriska förändringar i Norden och bredare Europa, kommer förmågan att snabbt anpassa optimeringslogiken att skilja de plattformar som framtidssäkrar sina kunder från dem som bara reagerar.
Oavsett hur kostnaderna exponeras för konsumenterna anpassar vi optimeringen efter deras verklighet. Det är vad framtidssäkring faktiskt innebär.
“Du kan pausa en tariff. Du kan inte pausa kostnaden för effekttoppar. Frågan är inte om kostnaden finns. Frågan är om hushållen får verktyg för att optimera kring den eller bara betalar den på ett mindre transparent sätt.”
The homes of today are becoming the power plants of tomorrow. We’re making sure utilities can actually trade them.
We’re excited to announce our strategic SaaS partnership with Hansen Technologies (ASX: HSN), one of the world’s leading software providers for the energy and utilities industry.
Together, we’re turning the distributed energy devices already sitting inside millions of homes into structured, tradable flexibility assets, embedded directly within utilities’ commercial and trading systems.
Why This Matters Now
The energy transition isn’t waiting. EVs, heat pumps, batteries, and rooftop solar are scaling fast across residential portfolios. But for most utilities, this wave of behind-the-meter devices looks less like an opportunity and more like a headache, fragmented, unpredictable, and impossible to coordinate at scale.
The problem isn’t the hardware. It’s the missing layer of intelligence that connects homes to markets. That’s exactly what this partnership solves.
What We’re Building Together
By combining Emulate’s AI-powered Home Energy Management System (HEMS) and production-proven Virtual Battery capabilities with Hansen’s Customer Information System (CIS), Energy Data Management (EDM), and trading ecosystem, utilities get a complete, end-to-end pathway from residential device to wholesale market.
For utilities, this translates into four concrete capabilities:
Orchestrate behind-the-meter devices in a tariff-aware, market-integrated way, delivering real savings directly to consumers
Reduce imbalance costs by optimising residential loads against wholesale price signals
Mitigate local grid constraints before they become costly network issues
Aggregate residential portfolios into virtual battery structures for participation in wholesale and ancillary markets (where regulation permits)
The result is forecastable, dispatchable residential capacity that can be valued, coordinated, and traded, not just monitored.
Why We Built This Together
“Residential electrification is reshaping utility operating models. Following a comprehensive evaluation of AI-powered HEMS providers, we selected Emulate Energy for the depth of its orchestration capabilities and its ability to maximise consumer savings without increasing operational complexity. Together, we provide utilities with a direct pathway from residential flexibility to wholesale market participation.”
— Carl Lidholm, EVP Energy & Utilities EMEA, Hansen Technologies
“Hansen’s footprint across CIS, energy data management, and trading systems creates a powerful foundation for commercialising distributed flexibility at scale. This partnership enables utilities to reduce imbalance costs, optimise procurement strategies and unlock new revenue streams from aggregated residential portfolios, positioning flexibility as a strategic asset class within the enterprise.”
— Shwan Lamei, CEO, Emulate Energy
Flexibility as a Strategic Asset
For too long, residential electrification has been treated as an operational challenge to manage rather than a commercial opportunity to capture. This partnership changes that framing.
When Emulate’s orchestration and forecasting engine runs inside Hansen’s commercial backbone, utilities don’t just gain visibility into their distributed portfolio; they gain the ability to act on it.
Residential flexibility stops being a cost centre and becomes a strategic asset class.
About Emulate Energy
Emulate Energy builds deep-tech software that turns residential energy devices into a reliable flexibility resource for utilities. We optimise EVs, heat pumps, batteries, solar, and smart meters against real tariffs and grid constraints, so households save money, and the system stays stable. Our software is live in programs with utilities across Europe and the US.
Follow us on our blog and social media to stay up to date as we build the future of residential flexibility.
