GELSENWASSER AG paves a sustainable path into the future with Energy
GELSENWASSER AG is a specialist for sustainable infrastructure – and a competent partner for private households, municipalities, industry and commerce. The company offers services for drinking water and energy supply as well as wastewater and all other public utility infrastructure issues. As you can see, Gelsenwasser is more than meets the eye.
Around 1,500 employees look after partner companies and customers. These are supplied with drinking and process water as well as natural gas and green electricity. Networks and their operation are ensured in partner municipalities.
In addition, GELSENWASSER AG offers a wide range of infrastructure services, partly via subsidiaries. In addition to energy supply, Gelsenwasser, as a competitive metering point operator, also supports municipalities and companies in particular in efficiently managing and further developing systems and networks. A large part of the “blue-green team” works at the head office in Gelsenkirchen. From there, the wide range of services and collaboration models is managed, whether for supply networks, facilities, or their operations.
Sustainable, digital, efficient – Sought and found
Throughout, the company places the highest value on sustainability. Environmental protection and resource conservation are always a focus, both internally and in the external services for partners and customers. The “blue-green team” continuously develops new ideas and seeks innovative solutions – as it is doing once again now.
But how? Using “Energy” and targeted AI-controlled energy management.
With the use of the AI-controlled software solution “Energy” from CREM SOLUTIONS, GELSENWASSER AG now offers its customers an energy management solution under the name “GELSENWASSER Monitor” to strengthen its ecological and economic positioning in the future.
Starting point – Laying the foundation early
After using an EDM (Energy Data Management) software for its own buildings for about ten years—and extending this solution to municipalities and major customers since 2016 to provide detailed insights into consumption—GELSENWASSER AG sought to refine and expand its capabilities in digital energy management.
Gelsenwasser utilized EDM solutions from various providers during this time. However, the solutions available on the market were largely tailored to network operators or the industry, and less so to municipalities. As a result, Gelsenwasser initially started with software that offered extensive functionality for network and metering point operators but provided few features for energy savings for large customers.
This was followed by an in-house development aimed at integrating the diverse data from market communications for electricity and gas with the collected LoRaWAN measurement data for water and heat. The idea was to create a holistic energy consumption management system, which was not available on the market at the time. However, a stable and comprehensive solution could not be achieved within the short development period.
After completing the project, GELSENWASSER AG therefore carried out a new market research and ended up with CREM SOLUTIONS and “Energy”. The software provides everything that municipalities, companies and end customers need. “Energy” can integrate diverse and unlimited data sources, capture all consumption data, consolidate and present it in a meaningful way, enabling analysis and evaluation.
Gelsenwasser takes municipalities and companies into the future with Energy
With the goal of optimizing energy efficiency in its own buildings—particularly at its main location in Gelsenkirchen—and becoming CO₂-neutral by 2035, Gelsenwasser decided to adopt the AI-supported energy management software “Energy” and implement it with the support of CREM SOLUTIONS.
The team quickly realized that the capabilities of “Energy” extend beyond internal use and could also benefit Gelsenwasser AG’s customer base. Based on the “Energy” system, the “GELSENWASSER Monitor” was developed in collaboration with CREM SOLUTIONS, enabling businesses in commerce and industry as well as municipalities to precisely analyze and sustainably optimize their energy consumption.
The advantages of “Energy” for customers
Municipalities are at the center of the energy transition and are encouraged by both the federal government and their own citizens to save energy and expand CO2-neutral energy generation. At the same time, large industrial or commercial customers are generally in competition with each other and are therefore forced to reduce their energy costs.
With the “GELSENWASSER Monitor” operated by and at Gelsenwasser, customers benefit from all the advantages that the energy management software “Energy” has to offer. The only difference is that they don’t have to buy any software. They acquire the integration of data and consumption points for their buildings or systems and can independently track and manage energy consumption via the “GELSENWASSER Monitor”. Or the Gelsenwasser team can take over digital energy management and make it available to customers.
In times of a shortage of skilled workers and scarce resources, Gelsenwasser supports local authorities and companies with years of expertise and know-how in energy efficiency and sustainability in order to reduce costs and achieve sustainability goals.
This Is what the 'Gelsenwasser Monitor' makes possible
Right from the start, the Gelsenwasser Energy project team saw the potential for local authorities and companies from their customer base to also benefit from the energy management software. Under the name “GELSENWASSER Monitor”, GELSENWASSER AG can now offer a new service – collecting and analyzing consumption data from customers’ data and consumption points so that both sides generate added value.
With the centralized data collection in the “GELSENWASSER Monitor” and the two integrated AI tools, “Optimise” and “Detect,” anomalies or deviations become quickly identifiable—for example, retail chains can rapidly gain an overview of the energy consumption of individual locations, while industrial companies can monitor the consumption of specific facilities. This way, it can identify where detailed analysis is worthwhile and immediately initiate measures for the sustainable optimization of consumption.
Gelsenwasser is also installing around 200,000 digital water meters in the supply area and would like to offer all customers a high-quality solution for visualizing and analysing water consumption. With the option of also recording water consumption and AI-supported anomaly detection with direct alarm messages, the “GELSENWASSER Monitor” can warn of leaks or burst pipes in good time and thus help to rectify any defects.
The software can be connected to any number of different consumption meters or data sources and also offers a variety of interfaces that enable data to be transmitted quickly. This enables scalable, fully automated collection of real-time data on electricity, water and gas consumption in buildings used by municipalities, companies or industrial plants.
Using various customizable dashboards on the different consumption of individual regions, properties or facilities, the managers can quickly gain an overview of the energy consumption and the CO2 emissions in the individual buildings or even individual data points. Unusual consumption is detected by the Optimise tool, which automatically triggers a notification and informs the responsible persons. This helps all users to quickly identify potential savings and take efficient savings measures. The solution thus enables GELSENWASSER AG customers to gain deeper and more detailed insights into all load profile data without having to spend more time or deploy more personnel thanks to the diverse data collection and analysis functions. If companies lack personal capacities or expertise, the Gelsenwasser team offers effective energy management as a service.
The Energy AI tools Optimize & Detect
“ENERGY DETECT” is a tool for detecting energy savings. It determines which buildings in the portfolio offer the greatest savings potential and which technologies or energy-saving measures can be used for optimization. The application is based on a combination of energy simulation models and artificial intelligence (AI). The questions of identifying inefficient buildings, optimizing resource investments to save energy and improving energy behavior can be answered with Detect.
“ENERGY OPTIMISE” is a tool that aims to identify and quantify anomalies in the energy consumption of buildings. Optimise uses artificial intelligence to detect deviating consumption and behavior and also calculates the energy impact and costs of each anomaly. The results are validated using both simulated and real consumption data. In-depth configuration options allow users to adjust the sensitivity of the models, focus on relevant anomalies and customize AI models.
Conclusion - Why "Energy"?
In its search for energy management software, GELSENWASSER AG was looking for a wide range of functions with high quality and openness to other systems, which, after many comparisons on the market, only Energy can provide. With its own properties, private households, large commercial and industrial customers and a strong focus on municipalities, Gelsenwasser has a very heterogeneous customer base with different requirements. In addition, GELSENWASSER AG is a pioneer in the digitalization of metering in the water sector and wants to generate added value for itself AND its customers in the future. The requirement was and is to be able to map all these aspects with one solution – this was and is feasible with the diverse possibilities of “Energy” and the Gelsenwasser team immediately recognized the potential here.
Due to the large number of functions of “Energy” and thus also the “GELSENWASSER Monitor”, many manual activities in the energy management of municipalities and companies can be automated. Individualized energy reports no longer have to be created manually, so consumption analyses have never been as simple and efficient as with the new energy management system. It is also becoming apparent that significantly more potential savings can be identified more easily and quickly using the Optimise tool. Initial analyses with Optimise have revealed excess consumption in schools, for example. This was caused, for example, by a ventilation system that was not adjusted to the usage requirements.
The features help GELSENWASSER AG customers to identify potential savings and make effective adjustments. The energy functions – Optimize and Detect – take a lot of work off users’ hands so they can concentrate on the essentials – measures to save energy.
However, smaller municipalities or municipal utilities often lack capacity. At the same time, companies lack expertise in the field of energy management. Nevertheless, there is a need for digital solutions for greater energy efficiency. However, product management poses a major challenge in some places – customers usually want to hand over the setup of the system and also need advice and training. With the option of offering “Energy” as a “GELSENWASSER monitor” including hardware, connectivity, data processing, visualization and consulting from a single source, Gelsenwasser provides targeted support with services in this area. This creates an additional economic sector for GELSENWASSER AG and at the same time reduces costs for the client – a success story for both sides.
GELSENWASSER AG and CREM SOLUTIONS - Working together for more sustainability
With corporate values such as transparency, diversity, enthusiasm and team spirit, the software was not the only decisive factor for GELSENWASSER AG. Another important reason for the decision in favor of “Energy” and CREM SOLUTIONS was the economic stability and future security of the provider. The focus here was on finding a partner with whom the vision and enthusiasm are shared and with whom long-term, future-oriented planning is possible. As a subsidiary of the Nemetschek Group, one of the largest providers of digital solutions for the real estate industry, this important requirement was also met.
This mutual trust was confirmed during the implementation of “Energy”. The collaboration between the GELSENWASSER AG team and CREM SOLUTIONS was consistently conducted on equal footing. Any requests that arose during the use of “Energy” were quickly communicated to the developers, discussed, and promptly implemented. Both teams have enthusiastically pursued the goal of implementing “Energy” as quickly as possible in order to create sustainable added value for GELSENWASSER AG. This quickly led to a common understanding of how both companies want to grow together in the market in the future.
Text taken from the original and translated – CREM SOLUTIONS
