Vattenfall and terralayr operate 55 MW virtual battery toll in Germany; first operational multi-asset battery toll in Europe

Vattenfall and terralayr operate 55 MW virtual battery toll in Germany; first operational multi-asset battery toll in Europe

Industry’s First Virtual Battery Toll Fully Operational: Vattenfall Controls 55 MW from terralayr - terralayr

Industry’s First Virtual Battery Toll Fully Operational: Vattenfall Controls 55 MW from terralayr

Vattenfall and terralayr have brought the industry’s first multi-asset capacity toll for battery storage into full operation: Following a staged ramp-up since January, Vattenfall now has the full 55 MW from the seven-year tolling contract available in live operation. Via its LAYR flexibility platform, terralayr aggregates eight decentralised large-scale storage systems in Germany into a single, easily dispatchable, aggregated virtual battery.

Unlike physical battery tolling, usage is not tied to a single, physically identifiable battery directly connected and controlled by the toller. At the same time, unlike purely financially structured virtual tolls, power delivery physically occurs according to Vattenfall’s signals, backed by a real portfolio of battery storage assets. The assets remain within terralayr’s balancing group and ancillary services pool. Vattenfall receives the commercially usable flexibility from the aggregated portfolio, while terralayr handles technical aggregation, dispatch control, and balancing group settlement via LAYR.

“This is the first operational multi-asset capacity toll for battery storage in Europe, if not worldwide — fully delivered and in stable operation. Storage flexibility becomes as easy to procure as cloud capacity: standardised and scalable,” says Philipp Man, Co-Founder and CEO of terralayr.

The ramp-up took place in stages: After the initial 5 MW in January 2026, further tranches followed in June and July. With the final tranche, the virtual portfolio has now reached its full contractually agreed capacity of 55 MW. Operations have run stably across all expansion stages since the launch in January.

From Single Asset to Portfolio

With the growing share of weather-dependent power generation, the demand for short-term flexibility is rising. Battery storage can provide this flexibility, but to date, assets have mostly been developed, financed, and commercialised as individual projects. Virtual tolling models allow energy traders, utilities, and industrial companies to procure urgently needed capacity in a standardised manner without capital expenditure (CapEx) or operational overhead.

LAYR Automatically Distributes Dispatch Across Multiple Storage Assets

In practice, based on market signals and portfolio needs, Vattenfall might decide, for instance, to charge 25 MW for one hour and bid 30 MW into the ancillary services markets to support the grid. The LAYR platform distributes this dispatch command, alongside signals from other offtakers, automatically and load-optimised across the underlying storage portfolio. In doing so, the virtual aggregated battery performs on par with a physical one: Vattenfall can use the capacity to serve all wholesale markets as well as primary and secondary control reserves (FCR and aFRR).

Portfolio Effect Reduces Single-Asset Risks

The portfolio setup mitigates dependency on any single storage location: If an asset fails or is temporarily unavailable, LAYR redistributes the dispatch schedule among the remaining batteries in the portfolio. This is particularly helpful given the increasing prevalence of restrictions on individual storage units due to flexible grid connection agreements. Natural battery degradation is also factored into the capacity model: Available power output tracks the guaranteed degradation curves of the integrated storage units.

Flexibility Without Direct Storage Investments

Energy utilities like Vattenfall can procure flexibility without taking on the traditional operational burdens or capital expenditure, keeping it off balance sheet while remaining scalable: Additional physical storage units can be connected to the LAYR platform in a standardised way and integrated into virtual portfolios.

Companies that do not fully utilise their own batteries can also monetise their capacity via the LAYR platform—and Vattenfall could add them at the click of a button in the future. “We call it ‘One-Click Tolling’ because, over time, additional storage capacity can be added via the platform in a standardised way,” says Tobias Geimer, who leads the project at terralayr. This makes storage capacity tradeable, standardisable, and bankable.

“Short-term flexibility is becoming increasingly important for the commercialisation of renewable energy. terralayr’s virtual battery portfolio allows us to integrate storage capacity scalably into our trading operations. From Vattenfall, we are proud to see the first virtual toll in Germany reach its contracted capacity. Being the first one means that both teams needed to work collaboratively to make this a success. The phased ramp-up to 55 MW proves that such portfolio structures work operationally and can play an important role in a more flexible power system,” says Björn Schneegans, Director Commodity Origination at Vattenfall.

Vattenfall is a leading European energy company that has been electrifying industries, powering homes, and modernising life through energy generation innovations for over 100 years. Our goal is to enable fossil freedom that drives society forward, making it possible to travel, produce, and live fossil-free.

terralayr is a fully integrated energy flexibility provider, combining German grid-scale battery storage development and operation with a proprietary software platform that virtualises, aggregates, optimises and commercialises flexibility. terralayr supports power producers, grid operators and major energy users, with a multi-gigawatt development pipeline across Germany and a roadmap to scale across Europe. The company currently employs around 60 sector specialists.