ETPA: The Dutch Exchange Making Electricity Trading as Nimble as the Grid Demands

The U.S. power grid is getting cleaner. But it’s not getting faster.

As renewables surge and electrification expands, the grid’s biggest challenge is no longer just generation — it’s timing. Energy needs to flow not just where it’s needed, but when. And right now, America’s fragmented, inflexible electricity markets are still operating on rules written for fossil-era predictability, not solar volatility or EV surges.

While developers chase storage, and policymakers subsidize upgrades, there’s a missing piece: real-time markets that actually match the speed of the new grid.

In the Netherlands, one startup has quietly built that system.

The Company: A Power Exchange Built for the Renewable Era

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Amsterdam, ETPA is rewriting how electricity gets traded in Europe. At its core, it’s a short-term power exchange — a marketplace where electricity is bought and sold minutes to hours before it’s needed, not days in advance.

What makes ETPA different is its DNA: built from the ground up for speed, liquidity, and inclusivity. Whether you’re a greenhouse operator with a flexible load, a battery storage facility looking to monetize arbitrage, or a utility juggling unpredictable renewables — ETPA lets you trade in real-time, no matter your size.

Its open order book, ultra-low entry threshold (as little as 0.1 MW), and continuous pricing make it a radically accessible platform — especially in a European market where legacy exchanges still favor big players and long timelines.

The Founder: Scaling Markets, Not Just Software

ETPA’s CEO Michiel Lensink took the helm in 2023 with a clear conviction: if Europe’s energy transition is going to work, markets have to move faster than politics.

A veteran of the cleantech and software worlds, Lensink isn’t selling buzzwords. He’s scaling a platform that’s already operational in the Netherlands and Germany — and now expanding into France, Belgium, and Austria.

“Energy trading will become the epicenter of the energy transition,” Lensink says. “And it has to work for the small, the distributed, and the fast — not just the old guard.”

Business Model: Turning Flexibility Into a Tradeable Asset

ETPA earns revenue by enabling trades — but its real business is liquidity.

By allowing any qualified participant to trade without long contracts or intermediaries, the platform becomes a live, transparent layer in the electricity system. Industrial users can monetize flexible consumption. Batteries can bid based on price swings.

Renewables can hedge shortfalls. It’s real-time economics for real-time energy.

And while ETPA makes money from trades, its deeper value lies in data. The more participants use the exchange, the more insights can be drawn — from price formation to grid bottlenecks to flexibility forecasts. That positions ETPA not just as a trading platform, but a potential intelligence layer for the European grid.

Valuation and Investor Logic: Betting on the Market Behind the Meter

In late 2024, ETPA raised €5.5 million to expand across Europe. The round was led by 4impact capital, with returning investors SET Ventures and ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund.

Their thesis? That the grid edge isn’t just about batteries and rooftop solar — it’s about market access. And that ETPA, with its open architecture and operational proof, is better positioned than any incumbent to become the dominant short-term exchange for a decentralized grid.

In a world of energy where flexibility is becoming a product, ETPA is building the market to price it.

Why the U.S. Should Pay Attention

The U.S. has vast renewables, expanding DERs, and billions in grid investment. But its market design still lags.

• Only a few ISOs support sub-hourly trading.

• Many distributed energy resources (DERs) can’t even participate.

• Most platforms are closed, slow, and fragmented across states.

  
  

ETPA shows what’s possible when real-time electricity becomes a liquid asset, not a bureaucratic headache. It’s a model of inclusion — allowing small, distributed assets to monetize their flexibility, and bringing dynamic pricing to parts of the system the U.S. still leaves static.

Challenges: Regulation, Fragmentation, and Scale

ETPA’s model is powerful — but not without hurdles. Expansion into new countries means navigating different regulatory regimes, utility politics, and entrenched players. Market fragmentation in Europe mirrors the U.S. in some ways — and scaling fast enough to stay ahead of competitors will require both capital and operational finesse.

Moreover, staying technology-neutral while integrating everything from virtual power plants to edge batteries will test the limits of ETPA’s systems as the platform scales.

Final Word: Trading Time, Not Just Energy

In the energy world of the 2020s, timing is everything.

ETPA isn’t building more infrastructure. It’s building the logic layer that lets the infrastructure we already have work smarter, faster, and fairer.

For the U.S., where grid coordination and DER integration remain bottlenecks, it’s not just a European curiosity — it’s a model worth importing.

Because the clean energy future won’t be won on generation alone. It’ll be won on the platforms that know when, where, and how to move electrons — in real time.