Businesses in Wuppertal Region Prepare for Futuristic Energy Tariff System to Support German “Energiewende”

At CSCP we are supporting local energy consuming industry and the Wuppertal municipality utility company WSW to design suitable dynamic energy tariffs. This will help implement the German “Energiewende” — a shift to renewables — as it will help align the demand side with the frequently weather-dependent supply of renewable energy.

CSCP and Wuppertal´s resource efficiency agency “Neue Effizienz” will dive into customer-acceptance, i.e. what is needed to persuade and help industry to subscribe to this kind of futuristic tariff, that does no more bill electricity accumulated over the month just by the Megawatt-hour.

The future tariffs that will be tested will most likely depend on both the accuracy of the forecast of a near-future energy demand as well as on the company’s ability to shift consumption away from the peak-demand times. If implemented, this system would enable companies to benefit from cheaper energy tariffs while easing the peaks.

The project “Happy Power Hour II” lead by University of Wuppertal and is funded jointly by the European Union and North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) under the European Regional Development Fund (EFRE) scheme. Free measurement equipment is being installed at the partner-companies. This will enable them to keep track of their energy consumption —particularly key periods of usage during the day. While the kick-off event took place in June, there is still the possibility for local companies to join in and take full advantage of the project.

Workshops with company representatives will take place early 2017 and the project runs until 2019. Since the energy market is fast-paced and international, early adopters will reap the biggest advantage and will be those best prepared for the future.

photo by: mattwalker69 (flickr), creative commons 2.0