KUGU sichert sich 8,5 Millionen Euro für die Dekarbonisierung der Immobilienbranche
KUGU's cooperation partners
Part 1 “The SmartOptimo municipal utility network”
What does SmartOptimo do?
SmartOptimo As one of the largest public utility networks in Germany, pursues the mission of making a significant contribution to the implementation of the energy revolution. It was founded in 2009 by Stadtwerke Münster and Osnabrück, which joined forces to offer classic and intelligent services for measurement and counting activities. Over the years, many other municipal utilities and energy companies were added, so that the range of services was expanded to include strategy consulting, the operational metering process and Smart MeterGateway administration.
Today, the municipal partner network led by Dr. Fritz Wengeler includes 140 employees who are working together to make the energy industry more digital and transparent.
How did the cooperation come about and what makes it stand out?
The complexity of a traditional, technical sector combined with economic pressure and current developments in energy and climate policy presents players in the energy sector with an enormous challenge. How can public utilities optimize their processes and make them more innovative? And on the other hand, how do solutions from PropTech startups like KUGU get to public utilities? Platforms such as SmartOptimo play an important role here, where stakeholders can meet and enter into cooperation on a level of trust.
Since KUGU with its submetering solution In line with SmartOptimo's goal of working for sustainable, economically strong municipal utilities, a corresponding cooperation was obvious. The cooperation was officially concluded in mid-2020 with the signing of a partnership agreement. KUGU prevailed in advance as the winner of a tender. This was carried out as part of the “Housing Industry Platform” initiative launched by SmartOptimo. KUGU impressed the participants primarily because of the following points:
◆ high level of commitment in the tendering process
◆ economic entry through the variable price component
◆ high level of support in the pilot project and beyond
◆ Technical expertise on the subject of submetering
◆ Software with a high level of automation, a clear interface and a high level of integration of various modules
◆ Existence of a proven billing system in the background
For public utilities that want to carry out some process steps as well as billing themselves, SmartOptimo sees KUGU's modular offering as very helpful, which provides various sub-metering solutions along the value chain. “What many public utilities have in common is that they have identified submetering and heating cost billing as a meaningful new field of activity in the context of the smart meter rollout and the liberalization of the entire metrology system,” says Maximilian Jossbächer, who is responsible for supporting municipal utilities in setting up the new business segment at SmartOptimo.
What successes have been achieved together so far?
By agreeing on attractive conditions and the transfer of knowledge promoted by SmartOptimo, the sales partnership has already led to five successful pilot projects within half a year, most of which will be converted into framework agreements in the coming weeks. Together with regional suppliers from Mühlheim, Herten, Bielefeld, Neubrandenburg and Nordhorn, KUGU is now working on digitizing the energy industry and creating new business models. “Cooperation with SmartOptimo and Stadtwerke is characterized primarily by open communication, trust, openness and sustainability. This is exactly in line with our corporate values and is therefore a great pleasure. Collaborations like this make me optimistic about the energy revolution,” says Christopher von Gumppenberg, founder and managing director of KUGU. The two companies are currently working together on using the CLS channel so that they can also map the processes via the SmartMeterGateway (SMGW) in the future.
Do you have any questions or are you interested in a partnership? We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Christopher von Gumppenberg//Founder and CEO// c.gumppenberg@kugu-home.com
sources:
https://www.smartoptimo.de/ueber-uns/aktuelles/
https://www.smartoptimo.de/ueber-uns/zahlen-fakten/
https://energie.blog/smartoptimo-kooperiert-beim-submetering-mit-kugu-und-varys/
