Virtual power plants: Startup Energiekoppler cooperates with energy producer LEAG

The energy transition is picking up speed. At the latest since Russia’s attack on Ukraine, it is clear that we must pull out all the stops. Not only for ecological and ecomic reasons, but also for political ones. Innovative technologies from startups like Energiekoppler can be an important support here. The Dresden-based team offers operators of small to medium-sized energy plants an opportunity that was previously reserved for corporations: they can network in virtual power plants, optimize their own consumption if necessary, and successfully participate in the electricity market. Energiekoppler co-founder Irina Weis reports on how the startup is now cooperating with energy producers such as LEAG in Lausitz.

Irina, until now, participation in virtual power plants was reserved primarily for larger energy suppliers. What was the reason for that?

For a long time, networking plants into a virtual power plant involved a lot of installation and configuration work, as well as manpower. In order to integrate an energy plant into the virtual power plant, interfaces had to be created for each plant, plant parameters had to be configured and agreements had to be reached, for example, on the communication connection. This was simply only worthwhile above a certain power class.

With Energy Coupler, small to medium-sized energy producers can now also become part of virtual power plants. How does this work exactly?

To find a solution for this target group, we spent nine years researching at the TU Dresden and finally founded our company. Through our swarmBox, we can network many different models of wind turbines, combined heat and power plants, photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, battery storage systems, fuel cells and even electric vehicles. We have reduced the initial configuration effort per energy plant by an impressive 70 percent compared to integration in classic virtual power plants.

Our swarmBOX collects and processes all generation and consumption data into planning criteria. We can therefore identify at any time how high the generator’s own demand for electricity, heat and e-mobility is, optimize self-consumption in the building and forecast how much energy – also depending on the weather on site – is available for the market.

What then happens with the data?

Based on the data, the swarmBOX determines the controllability of the energy system, the so-called flexibility, and passes this parameter on to our central coordinator, the swarmHUB. This forms the center of our virtual power plants, which we call flexibility plants.

The swarmHUB acts as the interface to energy trading. It is connected to all swarmBoxes and ensures that generation and consumption remain in balance at grid level. To make this work, we control our customers’ energy plants remotely. This allows us to participate in regional energy balancing as well as energy trading with our pool of small and medium-sized producers.

That sounds like a win-win situation for everyone involved. How did you recruit your first cooperation partners?

Actually, we simply made cold calls and were lucky enough to reach the right person at LEAG directly, the innovation manager Robert Klimpke. At that time, the employees at LEAG had already dealt with the topic of virtual power plants themselves and had gathered some know-how, so we understood each other immediately.

At the same time, we successfully applied for the SpinLab Accelerator in Leipzig. Mr. Klimpke would sometimes just drop by there and sit down with us. So the conversations became more and more intense and the mutual trust grew.

What did your first joint pilot project look like?

Before we really got into the business relationship with LEAG, we demonstrated the functionality of our technology in a test project: We were first allowed to integrate the photovoltaic system on LEAG’s roof into our flexibility plant and create an internal demand forecast for the company. This enabled the employees to better plan how much of the self-generated electricity would be available for energy trading.

In the meantime, we have become permanent partners and are quickly and automatically integrating numerous other plants of LEAG and of LEAG’s customers into our flexibility plant. We are also very pleased that our technology has convinced LEAG so much that the company has also joined us as an investor.

That sounds really great! You guys didn’t start up until 2020. Wasn’t that particularly difficult given the Corona crisis?

In fact, looking back, we can say that despite the constraints, we had a lot of digital presence and made good progress. Just in the past year, we’ve had decent growth, increasing our output from 250 MW to 1 GW of total networked capacity with numerous customers. We now have over 500 plants networked through our flexibility plants and we were able to hire four new employees.

Do you have any advice for other startups looking to successfully partner with established companies?

The most important thing is not to hide, but to make proper contacts. The accelerator program at Leipzig’s SpinLab also helped us a lot to build up a broad network.

What do you think is the current trend in the energy industry?

Renewable energies and neighborhood solutions such as local energy communities are definitely on the rise. Our technology can make a fundamental contribution to this. However, it is crucial that policymakers now follow suit and adapt the regulatory framework. Companies that would like to work with us to drive this forward are welcome to contact us!

Contact

Website: dieenergiekoppler.com

LinkedIn: Irina Weis