Pexapark Advises NeXtWind on Innovative Trading Strategy for German Repowering Fleet

Pexapark has worked with green independent power producer (IPP) NeXtWind on an innovative energy trading strategy that will help secure the future of one of Germany’s prime wind farm portfolios, ahead of its planned repowering.  

With the support of Pexapark’s Portfolio Trading Services team, NeXtWind has secured separate route to market (RTM) and hedge contracts for a 200MW portfolio of wind farms, located across Germany. This pair of agreements will enable NeXtWind to continue generating stable revenues from the 20-year-old projects, which have now reached the end of their ‘regulatory life’, under the Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz (EEG) subsidy scheme.  

The agreements will give NeXtWind a means to manage merchant risk for the period between the expiry of the EEG subsidy and the full repowering of the site, expected in 2026-2027. As NeXtWind aims to rejuvenate Germany’s aging wind infrastructure, this scheme could see the total capacity of a wind farm increased by up to three times, while making the most of the excellent local wind resources and existing grid connection. 

With repowering and lifetime extension schemes on the rise across Europe - but a limited track record of project completion - new, innovative approaches are increasingly needed to bring older, post-subsidy assets into the next phase of their commercial operation. Pexapark’s team played a key role for NeXtWind - not only identifying a novel approach to optimising project revenues, but also using advanced software tools to significantly increase the speed of the tendering process. 

“In the German market, both RTM and hedging needs are usually fulfilled through a single contract with the offtaker who offers the most attractive balancing agreement - but this is a compromise that can often result in an unfavourable hedging price,” said Jens Hollstein, EVP Advisory, Pexapark. “By separating these contracts, we were able to secure the most attractive balancing contract with one offtaker and the most attractive hedging contract with a second. That ultimately resulted in an uplift of between €10 and €15/MWh, as compared to a single agreement - significantly enhancing the value NeXtWind can deliver from the wind farms.” 

Securing two contracts is more time and resource-intensive than securing one - involving separate tenders, data collection requirements and negotiation of pricing and terms. Pexapark was able to streamline the tendering process, using its advanced Renewables platform to run both the route-to-market and hedging processes, and ensuring the entire deal process could be concluded within a 4-week window. 

“We were excited to partner with the forward-thinking team at NeXtWind who understand the role technology can play in expediting key processes and bringing online the next generation of renewables infrastructure,” said Boon Wong, Head of Portfolio and Trading Services, Pexapark. “By uploading and centralising all of the crucial asset data into a standardised format, we could seamlessly share it with our pool of offtakers, increasing ease and efficiency for their price calculations and enabling us to conclude the tendering process in record time.” 

Dr. Werner Süss, Co-CEO and Co-Founder, NeXtWind, concluded: “Innovative, data-driven trading strategies are integral to NeXtWind’s mission to give Germany’s wind infrastructure a new lease of life. We were delighted to work with Pexapark to secure ongoing revenues for this project, laying the groundwork for our upcoming repowering plans and helping to create as much value as possible for our investors and local communities.” 

Pexapark | www.pexapark.com 

NeXtWind | www.nextwind.com