When it comes to producing their own electricity, operators of photovoltaic systems face the problem of having too much electricity available on sunny days and too little on days with little sunshine. The solution: an energy community that shares surplus electricity among all members.
What is an Energy Community?
An energy community describes a so-called electricity community, i.e. an association of electricity producers, prosumers and consumers. This concept is used in the area of green electricity in particular, for example through photovoltaic systems. Here, the self-generated electricity is shared, used and stored by all members.
What must an Energy Community fulfill?
Basically, three factors must be fulfilled for an Energy Community to be described as such:
- A digital platform must be established and managed for the provision and optimization of decentralized energy supply. Supply from renewable sources should be prioritized over conventional supply.
- A digital network of prosumers and consumers must be created, including corresponding participation via tariff structures or marketing mechanisms.
- It needs a digital marketplace for the provision of additional services to community participants.
What different types of Energy Communities are there?
In the field of energy communities, there is a fundamental distinction between physical and virtual communities.
The physical community is usually also referred to as real storage, as the surplus electricity is stored both by the company’s own systems and by a shared storage solution from third-party providers and connected to form a network.
The virtual community differs in that it uses virtual electricity storage. If so much electricity is produced that it can neither be used up completely nor stored, it is possible to make this electricity available to other members in a so-called electricity cloud. To describe it more clearly: The electricity cloud can be viewed like an account that can be topped up. Members add “credit” to their electricity account and can also “withdraw” electricity if their electricity production is too low. In the virtual communities, there is a subdivision between regional and overarching communities.
Regional, virtual communities are created through the virtual association of consumers and consumers within a specific region. Local energy suppliers or municipal utilities often expand their services as part of digitalization, which opens up the opportunity to act as providers of those supply communities. Appropriate tariff models are used to combine prosumers and consumers into a community, which is billed via regular balancing.
Overarching virtual communities, on the other hand, differ in that the connection between pro and consumer is not necessarily limited to a specific region, but can be distributed nationally.
Digital energy management opens doors for sustainable concepts
Thanks to the continuous expansion of digital management solutions and automated processes, innovative and sustainable concepts can be implemented time and again to make both energy generation and energy management as efficient as possible. Digital energy management solutions cover all important areas and functions, from data collection regarding energy consumption and energy distribution to continuous consumption evaluation and balancing.
KENEXOS® makes it easier than ever for you to get started with digital energy monitoring. Test the centralized, device-independent software solution for documentation, order entry and allocation, process planning and complete communication within the team for 14 days free of charge.
About KENEXOS®
With Kreutzpointner Business Software GmbH (KBS for short), Kreutzpointner is setting a significant milestone in the technical development of the entire group of companies. Kreutzpointner Business Software GmbH focuses on the special requirements and digital needs of industrial customers with an independent business model. The operational launch took place in October 2020.
With KENEXOS®, KBS offers corporate customers an individually expandable application platform with its own software products and focuses on the implementation of industrial applications. KENEXOS® offers modern web technology for access via a wide range of end devices and enables integration with existing systems via an API interface. The standard modules include, for example, construction site documentation, task and ticket recording, plant management and maintenance and many more. The application platform is available for in-house installation (on-premise) or as a cloud solution (SaaS).
The ideas and the technical basis for Kreutzpointner Business Software GmbH have been successfully developed in recent years as part of the company-wide “Research & Development” process. In addition to the IT systems division, the new digital unit ideally rounds off Kreutzpointner’s large portfolio.
