Review of 2023: An exciting year on the energy market

GNDEW and ENEFG fuel the market

Thunderous applause, long-lasting. The network operator and MSB community at the Metering Days is enthusiastic about Sascha Lobo. Rhetorically convincing and with surprising examples from the digital world, he varied a dramaturgically successful presentation on digital transformation.

The message he conveys: “B2C is not my problem.” His answer, short and sweet: “Yes, it is.” Because: “The metering industry is sitting on a treasure trove whose scope and quality nobody knows yet.” He then uses Alexa and co. to prove that the flood of sensors and enthusiasm for data has taken hold among Germans, because in real life - according to Lobo - the average German is anything but data-efficient. Hence his radical conclusion: “Intelligent metering instead of smart metering: user-centered, app-based, lifestyle product”.

This is the summary on LinkedIn from our Managing Director Dr. Thomas Goette on the first day of Metering Days. But is this what the year 2023 will look like in reality?

Well, at least on paper: the new law to restart the digitalization of the energy transition (GNDEW) is intended to accelerate the rollout by 2032. This, plus the electrification of the heating and mobility sector and the expansion of renewable energies, will lead to a sharp increase in the number of smart meter gateways in the future: 30 million SMGWs are currently expected by 2032. At the same time, over 30,000 companies (> 7.5 GWh p.a.) and municipalities (> 3 GWh p.a.) will be obliged by the EnEfG to introduce energy management software, meaning that electricity consumption in Germany should be 45% lower by 2045 compared to 2008.

Nevertheless, there is still not much sign of the kind of movement in the enthusiastic grid operator and MSB world that Sascha Lobo would like to see. Nevertheless, these two laws should boost the market for SaaS companies in the energy market in the future - and ultimately bring more transparency to energy and CO2 consumption.

Energy savings and CO2 reduction in the savings meter

Speaking of which: following the start of the project at the end of 2022, our new “baseline generator” feature was tested for the first time this year as part of the energy-saving meter project - with encouraging results. For example, one of our largest corporate customers was able to save a total of over 2.1 GWh of energy across 9 locations. This corresponds to 5% of the total consumption of the 9 locations and around 500,000 kg of CO2. With the Diakonie-Klinikum Stuttgart, we also gained another customer at the end of 2022, whose savings in the energy-saving meter project will be included in the evaluation in 2024. We hope to be able to generate even more sustainability and resource efficiency in this way.

We are also pleased that we have been able to implement exciting energy management projects with four more customers and numerous new clients this year, including Stadtwerke Witten and a university. Other projects have also picked up speed, such as the collaboration with Stadtwerke Pforzheim.

Continuous development as one of our USPs

We are proud of the fact that customers keep telling us that our software development never stands still. This year, we have continued to work on our software and implemented several new features:

‍

• Third-party quantity delimitation
• PV alarm monitoring
• Dynamic tariffs
• Master data flex: The flexibilization of master data should make it possible to flexibly map any organizational structure with visual rights and also to implement complex metering concept

No success stories without existing customers

In addition to successful external events such as E-world and metering days, we held an existing customer day at our premises for the first time since 2015. Within the topics of sales & marketing, data integration, training and use cases of the energy management software, there were exciting discussions, lively exchanges and many new insights with 10 existing customers. An event that we will certainly repeat next year.

There were also five internal training days followed by a team event - including a pub quiz, a meal together and a beer pong tournament. And it wasn't just current team members who attended our summer party - 30 former colleagues also came to celebrate with us. Because at GreenPocket, we are all like a little family and there is always something left behind ❤ And this is also reflected in the ratings: Once again, we have been recognized by kununu as a Top Company 2024 and thus continue to be among the top 5% of the 1 million companies on kununu.

Research projects for innovative companies

This year, we also completed the Horizon2020 eCREW research project for electricity communities. Our dashboard and analysis features for electricity communities and our energy cockpit software solution developed as part of this project were awarded 4 out of 5 points in the final evaluation - the usability and recommendation of the app even received 4.7 out of 5 points.

Stay tuned for 2024!

"The industry really is sitting on a treasure trove of data. And yes, customers would like to see their consumption and production. And no, an app like this doesn't have to be elaborate, but done well and in a user-friendly way (and that's what matters!) it can create positive brand awareness for any modern municipal utility. TRUDI - as cheap as the name may sound to some POG-impaired ears - is really not the solution here."

This is how Dr Thomas Goette rounds off his metering days contribution - and we too are keeping our fingers crossed that in 2024 the motto will be: more digitalization, more user centricity, more energy management!
We would like to thank all our colleagues from the GreenPocket team. We would also like to say a big thank you to all our partners, customers, shareholders and service providers who have placed their trust in us this year. We wish you happy holidays and look forward to an energy-packed 2024!