The importance of energy efficiency for companies is constantly growing. Both environmental responsibility and cost savings have a decisive influence on the competitiveness of companies. In this article, we take a closer look at the most important facts of energy efficiency and show how companies can improve it.
Energy transition is a challenge and an opportunity for companies
The goal of transforming society as a whole into a green economy presents many industrial companies with enormous challenges and questions. On the one hand, the energy transition and electrification are leading to rising electricity costs and in some cases even to power shortages. In addition, the pressure to reduce CO₂ emissions is increasing.
On the other hand, more and more renewable energy from PV systems and wind turbines is being used. This makes sense on several levels, as the generation of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and cheapest: The production costs for wind and solar energy are lower compared to coal-fired power. However, the expansion of renewable energy sources is also making the energy system significantly more decentralized, dynamic and volatile. The availability and prices of energy can vary significantly. Industrial companies can benefit from this by making their consumption more flexible. Our AI-based energy management platform flexOn supports them in doing so.
AI-based energy management significantly reduces energy costs
The flexOn platform is integrated into the existing infrastructure of industrial customers without additional hardware and serves as a central operating system for energy management. Through AI-driven analysis and automation flexOn enables the industry to use electricity automatically when it is particularly green and cheap. Customers are currently saving 15% to sometimes 20% on energy costs while avoiding hundreds of tons of CO₂. Our AI-based energy management platform is already being used by customers from the food industry, such as the Wernsing Food Family or well-known logistics companies, where they intelligently control the consumption of thermodynamic systems such as chillers and heat pumps.
Potential recognized by well-known VCs
Investors in the current seed investment round also see the potential associated with AI-based energy management. Matthias Engel, partner at Vireo Ventures, confirms:
In the future, we will primarily have to use energy when it is available from renewable sources. Energy flexibilization is a key component of a successful energy transition. encentive provides impressive technology for industrial energy management and is far ahead of other solutions.
The round was led by Summiteer — the holding company of serial entrepreneur and e-mobility pioneer Sven Schulz, which has already invested in Enpal and neoom, among others. Other investors include Vireo Ventures, Smart Infrastructure Ventures, Interface Capital, OMA Ventures and well-known business angels such as Enerparc founder Stefan Müller and professional soccer player and investor Mario Götze. They are investing a total of 2.7 million euros in our vision to decarbonize the industry and revolutionize energy management.
“An important milestone”
“This investment round marks a significant milestone for encentive,” comments our co-founder and managing director Daniel Ehnes. “We are now able to make our outstanding solution available to a wider range of industrial customers and thus significantly advance the energy transition. We are grateful for the support of our valued investors, who have really understood what is important in the industrial energy transition. We are looking forward to upcoming developments! ”