PONTON BLOG

✨ PONTON Conference 2024 Recap ✨
A Celebration of Collaboration and Innovation in the Energy Sector

A Celebration of Collaboration and Innovation in the Energy Sector

With over 70 participants, including valued partners, clients, and friends from various industries, the PONTON Conference 2024 (October 10–11) was a resounding success! Once again, we brought together experts from across the energy industry to exchange insights and ideas in this unique event.

Our Managing Director, Tilo Zimmermann, alongside Michael Merz, officially opened the conference on Thursday, October 10, welcoming our guests with a light lunch and warm introductions.

A huge thank you to keynote speaker Paul van Son, President of Dii Desertec Energy and Chairman of ZETA (Zero Emission Traders Alliance), who kicked off the conference with a thought-provoking discussion on climate neutrality. With his extensive experience in energy markets, grid operation, and the global energy transition, Paul perfectly set the stage for our discussions, providing a foundation for a robust conversation on how the industry can drive meaningful change.

In the afternoon, we continued with Open Space discussions, where participants explored key topics like market design, PPAs, energy storage, and the digital future of the energy industry. For some attendees, this interactive format was new, but it proved highly effective, allowing everyone to vote on their preferred topics and engage in dynamic discussions.

Here are the top three most popular topics from the Open Space session:

  • Battery or Hydrogen Gas: Which will be more prevalent in the future?
  • Vision for Local Generation and Storage: Will wholesale power trading exist in 2050?
  • Accelerating Green Hydrogen and Green Power Markets

Other popular themes included the PPA market. At the end of each session, participants presented their discussions, summarizing key takeaways. The collaboration was inspiring, with diverse expertise converging on forward-thinking ideas.

To conclude the first day, we hosted a dinner along the Alster in Hamburg—a beautiful setting where our guests enjoyed a relaxed evening and had the chance to meet the entire PONTON team.

On the second day, we dove into Focus Workshops. We began with a PPA Workshop, featuring speakers with varied perspectives on Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs):

  • Jan Haizmann, Correggio Consulting: Developing an “ETE Framework Agreement” for PPAs
  • Jule Martin, Osborne Clarke: The potential for PPA standardization from a legal perspective
  • Xavier Bou, Electra Caldense: Using Micro PPAs for Energy Communities
  • Geert Van Wijngaarden, EWE: Post-deal perspectives on PPA standardization potential
  • Max Amir Dieringer, FlexPower: Short-term PPAs with PowerMatch – a market maker perspective
  • Tilo Zimmermann, PONTON: The PPA landscape from an IT perspective

Our thanks to these speakers for their insightful presentations and for driving meaningful discussions on PPAs.

Our second Focus Workshop on Friday was the PONTON Integration Tools User Workshop, expertly led by our colleagues:

  • Holm Hinrichs
  • Alexander Kartashov
  • Stefan Meewes
  • Miro Međugorac

This session allowed PONTON Integration Tools users to brainstorm, share feature requests, and discuss potential collaborations, opening doors for further innovation.

We are incredibly grateful for the success of these two days, as everyone left with valuable insights to apply in their own work within the energy sector.

We look forward to welcoming even more guests, partners, and friends to the PONTON Conference 2025!