Curtailment via the cloud for grid balancing and trading
With our Cloud Curtailment platform you gain easy access to flexible PV capacity from small-scale connections.
This provides you with an effective, scalable solution to lower costs from solar peaks and reduce imbalance risk.
How it works
1. Activation by PV owner
Your customers activate their inverter(s) within 2 minutes via the online white-label activation flow:
- Authorization: The owner authorizes themselves using the method requested by the inverter manufacturer
- Consent: The PV owner gives permission for monitoring and control of the installation.
- Live insight: The account is instantly active and data/curtailment is live available via our APIs. We also provide insight into the local grid voltage (measured at the inverter), for monitoring overvoltage issues in low-voltage networks.
2. Curtailment via secure API
Up to a few minutes in advance, you submit the curtailment request via our secure API. We can curtail PV generation fully or proportionally, and you can trigger curtailment per connection or customer group.
3. Execution of curtailment
We execute the curtailment via the official grid services connections with inverter manufacturers, without modifications to the installation and without impact on performance, lifespan, or warranty. We monitor the curtailed capacity and report it back to you.
4. Live monitoring by customers
Through our Smart Solar API or your own white-label app you provide your customers with live insight: live curtailment status, gross PV generation, and curtailed kWhs, optionally combined with accrued compensation. You determine the customer proposition and compensation.
5. Handling compensation for customers
If desired, we take care of processing the compensation to PV owners. The conditions, amount, and calculation (based on curtailed kWhs, activated capacity, or fixed compensation) are determined by you.
6. Employee portal and 2nd line support
As an energy supplier you have access to the employee portal with dashboards, live capacity per customer group, and up-to-date status per connection/inverter to answer customer questions. We provide second-line support for technical assistance and inquiries.
Successful real-world case: Enexis
In spring 2025, Zonnedimmer together with Enexis Netbeheer carried out a successful pilot. During periods of high feed-in, hundreds of residential installations in a selected region were controlled via the cloud, with good conversion of approached PV owners, positive feedback on the online activation process, and demonstrable reduction of stress on substations during solar peaks.
This result highlights the value of cloud curtailment as a practical and quickly deployable tool for reducing costs and keeping the grid stable.
Benefits
- Yield: > €120 per year per connection (5kW) with curtailment without forecasting, based on day-ahead price.
- Scalable: Fully cloud-to-cloud, no modifications needed in the home
- Behind the meter PV data: For better forecasting, intra-day trading and lower imbalance risk
Security
Our SaaS platform is designed with security-by-design as a starting point, including end-to-end encrypted data exchange and the use of partner-specific API tokens with limited validity.
For communication between our platform and the cloud environments of supported inverter manufacturers, we use specialized grid services connections with extra security, contracted and under SLA.
You can use our platform and the white-label activation flow for PV owners without transferring or storing customers' personal data.