RTC-Tools Integration & Energy Trading Use Cases: Overview – Jorn Baayen, PortfolioEnergy
Event Recap: LF Energy Summit Europe 2025
TL;DR
At LF Energy Summit Europe 2025, Jorn Baayen (PortfolioEnergy) detailed how the open source RTC-Tools platform is transforming power trading. By moving away from manual operations and closed-box third-party tools, the industry can leverage open source optimization to achieve high-performance results in utility-scale battery storage and microgrid management.
Presentation Overview
The session addressed a fundamental shift in power trading: the move from manual bidding to algorithmic strategies driven by open source logic. Baayen introduced the mission of PortfolioEnergy—founded by Baayen, David Hersen, and Jack Veen—to facilitate the reuse of open source capabilities in a market where traders traditionally replicate standard tools in silos.
The presenter framed this transition within the broader waves of the energy transition, specifically the current “third wave” of battery energy storage system (BESS) growth, where global capacity is increasing steeply to absorb excess renewable generation.
Technical Capabilities of RTC-Tools in Trading
RTC-Tools provides the foundation for an algorithmic trading API that processes telemetry and market data to produce optimal bids and offers.
- Physical Modeling: Includes state of charge (SOC), efficiency, and degradation modeling for battery assets, as well as complex microgrid or data center load profiles.
- Market Modeling: Incorporates price forecasts and market response models (such as the “Rocket” model) to understand how large-scale bids might impact market prices.
- Real-Time Execution: In markets like Australia’s NEM, which clears every five minutes, the platform computes optimal bidding strategies constantly based on state of charge and market uncertainty.
Performance Benchmarking
A key highlight of the session was a 2024 backtest using a basic open source configuration of RTC-Tools. The results indicated that the open source core achieved revenue performance nearly identical to the best-performing battery assets in New South Wales, Australia. This suggests that open source logic can provide a baseline of performance that matches high-end proprietary solutions.
Future Use Cases: Hybrids and Data Centers
The session outlined an expansion roadmap for RTC-Tools integration:
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- Solar-Battery Hybrids: Addressing the declining daytime value of standalone solar by pairing generation with optimized storage.
- Data Centers: Projecting a rise in electricity consumption from 4% to 12% by 2028 in the US and Australia, driven by AI compute demands.
- Large-Scale Microgrids: Managing hyperscaler data centers that incorporate utility-scale generation (natural gas, nuclear, and renewables) to secure power supply.
History and Roadmap
Originally developed at Deltares in 2015 for Dutch water management (drainage pump load flex), RTC-Tools has evolved into a utility-grade optimization tool. PortfolioEnergy announced that an open source release for the more complex European power markets is expected by the end of Q1 2026.
Watch the full presentation:
https://youtu.be/AsR7QF366f4?si=ZVR3xIuDVk6AUlVF
FAQ
What is RTC-Tools?
RTC-Tools is an open source platform hosted by LF Energy used for the control and optimization of environmental and energy systems, including power trading portfolios.
How does it perform compared to proprietary trading tools?
Backtesting in the Australian market showed that basic open source logic within RTC-Tools can achieve revenue performance on par with the highest-performing commercial assets.
What is the “Rocket” model mentioned in the session?
It is a market model that helps traders predict how the market may respond to their bids, preventing “market impact” where a large asset’s activity causes price peaks to vanish.
About LF Energy
LF Energy is an open source foundation within the Linux Foundation focused on advancing collaboration in digital energy infrastructure.
Learn more: https://lfenergy.org
