Next-Generation Anticipatory Intelligence for Power Markets
People
(Responsible)
Abstract
The project’s purpose is to build a power-trading technology stack that scales Flame’s newly established trading desk from 2 to 5 traders and to
12 full-time employees within four years. The problem concerns forecasting technologies: European power markets are becoming more volatile as renewables and geopolitics drive uncertainty. Technical
challenges: existing forecasting tools fail to jointly capture temporal dynamics, cross-border couplings, and strategic behaviours. The proposed solution is a single decision-support stack integrating two innovations:
IS1-FM (multi-country forecasting) and IS2-MA (LLM agent-based simulation). This technology will learn and simulate full market mechanisms, uniquely addressing the three modelling challenges simultaneously. The timing is critical: market complexity and competition are increasing; at the same time AI/HPC systems are now mature enough for reliable validation and live deployment. The initial market is Flame’s power desk, with direct adoption in trading and risk management, and the platform is horizontally transferable to Flame’s gas trading desks. The competitive landscape includes utilities, physical trading houses, and hedge funds, with in-house technologies spanning proprietary data-driven models to physically based models. The business model is trading-profit driven: better models improve trader throughput, risk deployment, and tradable opportunities. The project team is well
positioned: Flame provides knowledge of the full value chain of power markets along with proprietary data, while the Faculty of Informatics at USI provides AI/ML, HPC, and multiple successful prior power-market Innosuisse project experience. Flame estimates the project financial valuation, with Innosuisse funding, at CHF 10–15m versus CHF 1m for business as usual. Flame’s global revenues in 2024 were CHF 1.5b. Flame and USI are fully committed to the vision of positioning Switzerland as the leading technology-driven power-trading hub globally.
