Optimize the energy consumption with AI
Artificial intelligence is accelerating the energy transition
From startups to established SME's - many economic stakeholders in Germany's True North have recognised the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for their business.
Despite high energy costs and a growing awareness of the need to save electricity and use energy from renewables, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Schleswig-Holstein want to make changes - but many don't know where to start. Not least because the energy market is highly complex. Furthermore, at many companies the existing business processes leave scant opportunity to tackle such issues. This is where the startup encentive comes in - armed with AI technology and the conviction that it can play a role in combating climate change.
The team focuses on commercial customers, as these organisations tend to consume a lot of energy, thereby creating huge optimisation potential. As a service provider, encentive helps companies to save electricity and to use it at times when it is cheaper - digitally and through the use of artificial intelligence.
„We present a concept, free of charge, that enables SMEs to easily start managing their consumption as a first step," explains co-founder Daniel Ehnes. „This has a digitalising effect in that we help companies to eliminate paperwork and create initial added value.“
Digitalisation thus creates the basis for automated optimisations using AI algorithms and predictive methods. „We do the calculation - what will the PV feed-in from the roof be? How much electricity will the heat pump consume? When should the forklifts be connected for charging? We automate these processes with a lean solution as our product."
For the North German, encentive is more than just a good business model: „We have a deep intrinsic motivation and the ambition to build something that adds value to the economy and society during the energy transition. That's why we founded the company.“ The startup's focus is on customer groups in the food value chain - from the farmers, who need cold storage to keep their produce fresh in winter, to the processors and logisticians, right through to food sales in the supermarkets. Until now, the respective systems were typically operated in isolation. "We combine the various energy consumers and optimise them. Wherever disparate systems need to be consolidated across different trades, that's where we come in.“
Intelligently networked in Schleswig-Holstein
encentive also received support to establish itself on the path of corporate development. In the first step, Daniel Ehnes and his co-founders presented their ideas and their commercial potential to the WTSH StartUp Funding & Financing team. And with success: „We received the 2021 Schleswig-Holstein StartUp Grant, which was a great help to us.“ In short order they became acquainted with the team at the AI Transfer Hub Schleswig-Holstein, received funding support and carried out a feasibility study. „The feasibility study provided an excellent foundation for our project," says Ehnes, an electrial engineer by training. "It created the scientific basis for our project and comfirmed that our concept really can create added value.“ Daniel Ehnes feels positive about the future - for encentive and for Schleswig-Holstein as a leading AI location. "Here in the North there is a good spirit, smart people and policy-makers who are driving the topics of digitalisation and AI. The energy transition is a mammoth undertaking, but we've started at the best time and under the best conditions for future success.“
