The Dresden-based Kiwigrid GmbH stands for a sustainable energy world – a world in which the energy ecosystem is in balance with nature and society. Kiwigrid develops an open platform for the future of energy that helps customers increase their energy efficiency, optimize the use of renewable energy, pave the way for electric vehicles and stabilize power grids.
Challenge
Kiwigrid’s two core products “The Independent Home” and “The Electrifying City” are based on the so-called Energy Manager. The Energy Manager is a box that links generators and consumers in the home with the aim of achieving self-sufficiency in the areas of electricity, heat and mobility. More precisely, the Energy Manager pursues the goal of optimizing the load in order to use the electricity that is generated decentrally on site as much as possible.
Solution
SOTEC supports Kiwigrid in the further development of the current version of the Energy Manager and its portal on all levels, from the device to the cloud. On the cloud side, Kiwigrid relies fully on Google, using Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Storage and CloudSQL, among others. On the device side, SOTEC supports, among other things, the connection of additional devices to the Energy Manager, such as heat pumps or wallboxes, as well as the control of energy flows for the various optimization scenarios. The new version of the Energy Manager is also intended to drive optimization with regard to financial aspects from the customer’s point of view, so that external electricity is primarily used when it is available at a favorable price.
Result
Since the beginning of the collaboration in August 2020, a trusting partnership has developed between Kiwigrid and SOTEC, so that an open exchange of ideas and technologies takes place even beyond the current day-to-day business. Because even though the business areas are different, there is a great deal of overlap in the technologies applied. For this reason, we are already planning further joint projects.
