Profitable sustainable: Fraunhofer spin-off makes energy system transformation a business model

The start-up AMPEERS ENERGY provides a cloud-based software ecosystem with which companies can exploit the economic and ecological potential of the energy revolution.

2 min. reading time

By Dr. Karsten Schmidt,
Gerrit Ellerwald, Tobias Müller, authors
Published on 01.08.2019

CONTENT

A new player for enabling decentralized business models

Customers benefit from simplification and cost reduction

A new player for enabling decentralized business models

On May 2, 2019, the Fraunhofer spin-off AMPEERS ENERGY was founded in Munich. The founding team, consisting of Gerrit Ellerwald, Tobias Müller and Dr. Karsten Schmidt, implements the decentralized energy revolution as a profitable business model for companies with its software solutions. The software solutions offered are based on the long-established EMS-EDM PROPHET® software developed by Fraunhofer IOSB-AST and range from neighbourhood energy management and a tenant flow application to the controlled charging of commercial e-vehicle fleets. The fact that AMPEERS ENERGY’s business idea is falling on fertile ground is demonstrated by the seed financing round concluded in June, in which a 7-digit amount was achieved. Among the investors are the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Jost Group of Companies as well as a number of experienced business angels from the energy industry, such as Prof. Dr. Mike de Saldanha, Peter Mussaeus, Peter Beyer, Dr. Volker Breisig, Andreas Steck and Dr. Moritz Pöschke. The use of the funds will flow into the further development of the products and market entry.

Customers benefit from simplification and cost reduction

What distinguishes AMPEERS ENERGY from other competitors is the holistic approach of the software solution – from forecasting to optimization and billing, and that across all sectors. Both established and new players in various sectors can thus manage all their energy-related activities in the neighbourhood – without the need for costly and time-consuming know-how development and, what’s more, profitably. The AI-based software automatically forecasts generation and consumption, performs the subsequent optimisation and the complete processing (including all energy market processes) and billing. This results in financial advantages in the implementation of tenant electricity projects of 40% compared to existing software solutions. The use of e-vehicles is possible at € 5 ct/km lower operating costs compared to conventional diesel vehicles and energy costs in the neighbourhood can be reduced by up to 20% through cross sectoral optimisation.