Episode 56 - The Duck Curve, the Canyon Curve, and the Business Case for BESS at CPO Sites

Flexibility That Actually Pays

‍

Grid connections rarely deliver the full power a CPO has contracted for. Ask for ten fast chargers at rated power, and the distribution grid operator will almost never hand over enough capacity to run them all at once, at full speed, all the time. That gap isn't closing - reinforcing a grid takes years and billions of euros, while integrating flexibility takes months.

‍

This is why co-located battery storage is moving from a nice-to-have to a near-default requirement for serious high-power charging sites. But a battery only creates value if something steers it - reacting to real-time market signals with enough frequency and precision to keep the site both reliable for EV drivers and profitable for the operator.

‍

In this episode, Christophe Lephilibert speaks with Michel Verschuere, founder and managing director of Yuso, a Belgian balance service provider managing roughly 500 megawatts of grid-scale flexibility across Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, and the Baltic states. Michel explains why classic ancillary services often don't fit public charging, and walks through a live three-way partnership - FLEXECHARGE, Yuso, and Intercell - deployed on a real Q8 Electric site.

‍

What You Will Learn in This Episode

‍

This episode gives CPOs and energy infrastructure teams a grounded view of where real flexibility value comes from at charging sites - and where the hype outruns the economics.

‍

• Why grid congestion, not charger cost, is the real driver behind co-located batteries
• Why FCR and aFRR often conflict with a CPO's real constraint: kilowatts to charge cars
• What the duck curve is, and why it's becoming a "canyon curve" in some markets
• Where reliable flexibility value exists today: peak shaving, day-ahead, and imbalance markets
• Why "full-stack" flexibility promises are often overstated
• What a real three-way EMS-BSP-BESS partnership looks like in practice