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Receiving your heat and electricity bill at the end of each year will soon be a thing of the past. Digital meters make it possible for consumers to constantly monitor the energy used by household appliances, radiators and other devices. How much energy is your washing machine using? Or your fridge, TV or games console? By using digital meters, you can keep track of how much electricity your appliances actually consume. Smart systems that combine hardware and software – called energy saving meters – measure the energy usage of a particular appliance in real time. And this is not just a vision of the future! Smart homes and smart grids are quickly becoming a reality.

Funding programme for energy-saving meters in high demand

Since May 2016, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has been using its energy saving meters pilot programme to provide funding for companies that offer their customers with innovative services that help them reduce their electricity, gas, heat and cooling consumption. Companies that are trying out, enhancing and marketing digital energy-savings solutions by providing these to customers and final consumers, are eligible to receive €1 million in funding and a grant amount of a maximum of 50 per cent of their investment. This programme has met with great success, and, given that it is in such high demand, the funding volume has been increased, rising from €30 to €55 million.

The underlying principle is simple: the more customers reduce the amount of electricity, gas, heat and cooling they use, the more funding the company which is helping them do so by providing them access to a digital energy-saving meter platform and services will receive. The goal of the programme is not only to make private and commercial consumers more aware about how much energy they are using for what, but to also help them use the services offered in order to reduce the amount of energy they consume. Apart from bringing down their energy consumption, the new business models and energy-efficiency services also provide customers with added benefit, for example, by detecting and eliminating defects before they happen, and improving security and convenience.
At the same time, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy’s programme helps strengthen Germany as a business hub and paves the way for the development of pioneering innovation. The programme is part of the German government’s National Action Plan on Energy Efficiency (NAPE).

Digital platforms help keep track of your energy savings by kilowatt-hour

There is a wide range of different ideas on how energy saving meters can be implemented. One is to install a sensor in your fuse box using a clamp. A sender module then transmits the data to an app on your computer or phone via a wifi connection. This allows customers to see how much they will save on their electricity bill up to the cent if they set their TV to power-saving mode or their washing machine to eco. Other business models focus on measuring overall electricity usage to then calculate how much the individual devices consume. They provide customers with specific tips for energy-saving and maintenance, helping them optimise their use of floor space, compressed air systems in the industrial sector or control combustion processes in real time. They also help optimise the operation of heating systems in the housing sector, by continuously monitoring operating parameters and combining this data with artificial intelligence and self-learning algorithms.

The potential for saving energy is huge. The projects submitted under the funding programme seek to reduce energy consumption by 10 to 40 per cent, or even more than that.
They mainly target commercial and private customers. However, some projects are also being implemented in industrial enterprises, public administration, charities and churches. The first randomised measurement results will be available from 2018.

Energy saving meters ring in a new age of energy efficiency

The ideas used in the projects submitted under the funding programme show that energy-saving meters are paving the way for developing innovative digital energy-saving services and are ringing in a new age of energy efficiency. Energy-saving meters have two distinct benefits: by monitoring energy usage, the success of investments in energy efficiency can be made transparent and assured, and by analysing the data collected, customers can be provided with automatic settings that help them save energy, and existing systems and equipment can be optimised at low costs. This includes streamlining how a system runs, using predictive maintenance and advice, and considering retrofits, for example in the buildings sector. Here, smart metering systems that are based on the Smart-Meter-Gateway (SMGW) – a secure communications platform – can be used.

Digital aids will also make it possible to develop new energy services that help consumers successfully integrate electricity from volatile renewable energy sources. For example if there is a lot of wind and electricity is cheap, heat pumps will automatically be switched on to fill up the heat storage units.

The energy-saving meter pilot programme shows that consumers will soon be able to use innovative services that offer rewards for using less energy and therefore help save money and protect the environment.