With a lot of traffic at our booth, eye-opening conversations and great connections, this year’s E-world energy & water was again a resonating WOW! We welcomed partners and visitors to our reimagined "Energy from Nature" ecosystem in Hall 3, Stand K134, where the focus moved towards the immediate challenge of market survival.
Indeed, this year, we noticed a remarkable shift in tone: For years, the industry spoke about the energy transition as a target on the horizon. In 2026, the discussions at our booth were about the daily struggle of managing it.
A recurring frustration echoed across the halls of Messe Essen: the weight of legacy ETRM systems. We met with many organizations still wrestling with "Swiss Army Knife" software where most of the features collect dust while maintenance bills continue to climb. These monolithic suites were built for a linear, predictable grid that no longer exists. Thanks to procurement requirements like local references and language, these vendors are often the only ones considered for tenders, while vendors that may be a better fit are overlooked.
In Essen, the industry's focus turned toward modular, agile frameworks that grow with a portfolio rather than weighing it down. We spent much of the week discussing how to move human talent out of the trap of manual processing and into high-value oversight roles. The best way forward is clear: let automated loops handle the heavy lifting of optimization across day-ahead, intraday, and ancillary services while the team focuses on strategy.
Closing the "Brain and Muscle" gap
You cannot manage an asset effectively unless you control it. The split between the ETRM's business brain and the VPP's physical muscle is a financial liability. Tuesday’s “Wholesale to Retail” panel moderated by Wolf Ketter confirmed that market lines are being redrawn, which directly affects aggregators and technology platforms.
With Europe's flexibility value pool hitting €12 billion by 2030, creating an “Integrated Loop” was a main topic at our stand. As trading moves to 15-minute windows, a trader whose signals don’t account for the battery state of charge or a plant’s ramp rate is making blind choices. The winners are using platforms where commercial bids are based on real physical capacity.
9,000+ hours of the "New Normal"
We looked at the latest market benchmarks - including the record 9,000+ negative price hours across Europe in 2025 - to discuss how to stay profitable when volatility becomes structural. Multi-market optimization is now the new "lead currency" for stabilizing an increasingly volatile system.
In this environment, traditional "paper" hedging is losing its effectiveness. We are seeing a significant repricing, with the value of simple generation eroding and margins migrating toward flexibility and storage. If you do not have the digital infrastructure to monetize this volatility, you are leaving money on the table.
The Southeastern Europe "Premium"
Our regional analysis of Southeastern Europe (SEE) hit a nerve with international visitors. While Germany remains the benchmark, prices in markets like Hungary and Romania have recently cleared at double those levels.
The "SEE Premium" is being driven by structural friction that we discussed in depth:
Limited cross-border transmission turns local generation dips into regional price spikes.
Record power exports to Ukraine are rippling through the Balkans, causing spot prices in Serbia to soar by nearly €70/MWh in a single day.
Flexibility mandate in Hungary, where solar capacity is nearing 8.3 GW, flexibility management is no longer a "nice-to-have", but vital for survival.
E-world is all year round
E-world 2026 confirmed that Navitasoft’s mission to digitalize energy is about more than just software. It is about providing a one-stop shop for a market where speed is now the primary competitive advantage.
Whether it is bridging the gap between VPP operations and sophisticated trading or helping prosumers reclaim their margins by bypassing intermediaries, the goal remains the same: ensuring our partners have the agility to thrive in a converging market.
Thank you to everyone who stepped into our new ecosystem in Essen. Let’s close the loop together.
