gridX GmbH News

As gridX Product Manager of Asset Integration Daniel Gomes Makohin says: “In the field, energy assets are the hands and eyes of XENON – and integration is the circulatory system making them work.” As the energy space becomes more and more decentralized, gridX is continually extending the compatibility of its platform. They do this by integrating additional distributed energy resources (DERs) to help their partners scale, focusing on the most future-proof original equipment man...

Users have probably heard the term dynamic load management (DLM). Users may know that it supports power systems by allowing more charge points to run on existing grid infrastructure, thereby reducing upfront costs and recurring grid fees. Users would also know that it assists with seamless vehicle grid integration, which is vital to making the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) more widespread. But what benefits does it offer end users? Dynamic load management First, let’s cover...

In the UK, the cause of significant energy peaks often comes from an unlikely source: the humble kettle. Because British television viewing trends are so in sync, the habit of drinking tea during an ad break has historically placed such a huge strain on the grid, that they need to import additional energy from France. This phenomenon is known as the Great British Kettle Surge. Energy management solution The 1966 FIFA World Cup Final between England and West Germany, for example, had 32,000,00...

The smart grid company gridX, based in Aachen and Munich, and ChargeOne, EV charging specialist and brand of the traditional Munich-based company Claus Heinemann Elektroanlagen GmbH, announce a partnership to optimize the energy management of charging infrastructure projects across Germany. The solution is based on gridX's IoT platform XENON and will from now on be used in ChargeOne's projects. The gridBox IoT gateway manages loads locally and allows ChargeOne’s customers to access load pr...

Just like users can use the phone for anything from texting to navigating, use cases for Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) also vary widely: users can use an HEMS to simply gain insights into power consumption and generation, or go as far as monetizing the flexibility of a household. GridX looks at the use cases that lie between these two extremes, what circumstances give rise to them, and how they benefit consumers. common use cases A closer look at the regulatory an...

High Power Charging (HPC) stations have a charging power of at least 100 kW. Existing grid infrastructure, however, often provides significantly less capacity and upgrades are extremely costly. Luckily, most cars only charge with maximum power for a brief period. Batteries leverage this and enable the use of HPC on existing infrastructure. Cars briefly charge with full power As any EV driver will tell the user, they can charge to some 60-80% in around half an hour, but getting to 1...

Initially founded to create a European market for coal and steel, the single market remains at the core of the European Union.  Yet, when looking at Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), Europe remains a patchwork of local regulations, which creates vastly different requirements and opportunities across the continent. We shed light on how this plays out in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands. The need for HEMS Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is causing energy bills to rise to...

The upcoming smart meter rollout in Germany will bring additional costs for prosumers. Market players that view these costs as investments can benefit from innovative and attractive new business models – a plea for those preparing and offering customers a seamless overall package. Politicians and regulators are currently preparing for the smart meter rollout in Germany. With optimism, one can interpret the signals from BMWK, BNetzA, and BSI to mean that the nationwide installation o...

In late August, after Russia announced it would shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for repairs, gas prices at the Dutch TTF trading point, the European benchmark, reached €339 euros per megawatt hour. This was 140% higher than the week before and an 848% increase in prices in August 2021, where they sat at around €40/MWh. Such staggering price hikes have had a huge impact on consumers. Rising energy prices in the UK have contributed to the biggest drop in living standards...

Two fast-growing companies are joining forces to accelerate the mobility transition: gridX, the smart grid company recently acquired by E.ON, announced a collaboration with Charge Construct, a holistic charging infrastructure provider based in Ingolstadt, Germany. With the dynamic load management (DLM) solution based on gridX technology, Charge Construct aims to become one of the leading full-service providers for charging infrastructure in Germany and the DACH region. gridX and Charge Constru...

Household electricity prices are rising ever higher, and more and more end customers are investing in PV systems for self-generation. This means that gigawatts of photovoltaic and battery capacity will be installed in the coming months and years. However, these assets will most likely never make a contribution to the German power system, as their participation in wholesale and system service markets is blocked by regulation. Increased generation and opportunity Costs for balancing power and r...

EU member states have agreed that from 2035 onward, only new cars and vans with zero CO2 emissions will be permitted. Even without this new goal, 65 million electric vehicles (EVs) were expected to be on European roads by 2030, a figure that will double by 2035. If they stick to the EU Commission’s recommendation of having one charging point for every 10 electric cars, a phenomenal ramp-up in EV charging stations is needed to be able to charge these vehicles. With exponentially more...

Decarbonization goals in the energy sector are causing a rapid surge in electricity demand. In the EU, demand will increase, on average, by 1.8% each year over the next decade. electric cars A whopping 40-50 million heat pumps and 50-70 million electric cars are expected to be added to the grid within that time frame. This makes the modernization and expansion of the electricity distribution grid one of the biggest challenges the EU faces. According to Eurelectric, it’s...

According to a survey by Delta-EE of over 1,000 Europeans, self-consumption optimization is the most attractive value stream in the Home Energy Management (HEM) field for end users. And it will experience the highest growth in the next five years. The study also showed that annual sales in the HEM and appliance optimization markets in Europe will grow by 6-fold this decade and be implemented in 10 million homes by 2030. What are the driving factors behind this? Well, 90% of respondents...

The energy industry must urgently decarbonize. Therefore, they need to drive electrification across sectors and source electricity from renewables. This shift gives rise to an increasing number of asset types, partnerships and use cases. Different makes of electric vehicles, charging points, inverters, batteries and heating appliances and various forms of communication within and between energy systems make the work of every player along the energy value chain increasingly complex. In addition,...

In 2021, Russia provided Germany with 55% of its natural gas imports, 35% of its oil imports and 50% of its hard coal imports. The war in Ukraine is causing a monumental shift in the country’s energy landscape, with increasing pressure to become independent of these fossil fuel imports. Gas is a key component for many industrial processes  – it keeps half of Germany’s 41.5 million households warm and accounted for 15.3% of German electricity generation last year...

In the eyes of software engineer Robin Meindersma, software shouldn’t be seen as an execution task, but rather a creative process. Successful software can, after all, best be built with the right culture and the right people—not code monkeys. To Robin’s frustration, however, this view is not yet widely held across the industry. Here is his journey of how he discovered and developed a passion for agile software development, and found an employer that aligns with his views. Con...

For the time being, the focus of the collaborations is on expanding their offerings in the area of electric mobility. The power grid was not built with today's demand for e-mobility in mind – but with gridX's AI-based charging management, seamless charging can become a reality. With the installation of charging infrastructure in buildings, underground garages and parking areas, the load on the grid or at house connections increases enormously. Dynamic load management enables efficient dis...

Uniting the previously separated sectors of mobility and energy through the electrification of transport is an exciting yet daunting task. Electric vehicle grid integration – interconnecting electric cars with the power grid – presents many challenges, but also many opportunities for enabling smarter, more holistic energy management in homes, businesses and across entire cities. Network voltage deviations There will be 130 million EVs on European roads by 2035. A study by Eur...

In 2021, gridX realized, probably more than in any year before it, that the energy industry is facing huge disruption, but also enormous opportunities. To survive in the dramatically changing landscape, stakeholders in the industry (and across many intertwined industries) have to shift focus, adapt business models, and adopt new technologies. No challenge, however, is greater than the need to decarbonize. Three-quarters of global emissions The energy industry has undergone more change in the...

If rising prices for oil and gas, combined with COP26 sounding the “death knell for carbon” weren’t already enough for fossil-fuel-based companies, a new survey has found that 56% of those working in oil and gas want to pursue jobs in renewable energy in the coming years.  Energy companies such as Shell, BP and a range of smaller firms cut tens of thousands of jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as they tightened budgets. Now, even as energy demand recovers, many co...

gridX introduces modules, combinable components that make the development of digital energy solutions on XENON even simpler and faster. Think of them as building blocks that users can combine in any way to build their very own application – without the need for any engineering resources. gridX unveils XENON Modules When they launched XENON back in early 2020, they wanted to make the development of energy management applications as simple as possible. Over the following months, however, t...

There are three different options when it comes to load management. These vary in complexity and bring different costs and benefits.  Unmanaged One could argue that this option should not even make the list but as it is a common setup gridX has included it: no management. Here, the charging infrastructure is always given the load it requests. This means all charging points can charge with full power at all times. Sounds great? Well, there's a catch. There is no overload protection so hig...

Greta Thunberg’s summary of COP26 was rather short and to the point: 'blah, blah, blah'. Beyond the empty words and promises, they try to dig a little deeper to see what was achieved at the latest Conference of the Parties and where the biggest areas for improvement lie. The 15-day Glasgow climate change summit brought together 40,000 government representatives, negotiators, businesses and citizens, with the aim of ramping up international efforts to tackle global warming. It was dubbed t...

The smart grid company, gridX, today announces cooperation with Westnetz, a Dortmund-based distribution system operator for electricity and gas. The wholly owned subsidiary of the energy company Westenergie has chosen gridX's energy management solutions to further advance the future project ‘Grid Operation 4.0’. Grid Operation 4.0 project As part of the ‘Grid Operation 4.0’ project, Westnetz is equipping 100 local grids with smart metering technology and linking them t...

As the adoption of electric cars proliferates throughout Europe, electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions are entering the next phase of development. Beyond building a widespread network of charging stations, and ensuring they are supplied with green energy, ongoing innovation in the area of smart charging solutions is vital to alleviate persistent concerns and truly advance the mobility transition.  EV Readiness Client Survey In Germany, new EV registrations have increased by a factor o...

This year, the winter 2021/22 season opened with anything but a warm welcome: record high gas prices, increased demand, extreme weather events and unplanned outages are just a few of the elements that will categorize the coming cold season. They may not have dragons or nine noble families fighting for the iron throne, but, ladies and gentleman, there is no doubt that winter is coming. Gas market chaos has driven prices 280% higher than usual this year. On October 5 Europe’s benchmark nat...

Munich-based smart grid company - gridX announced a collaboration with Fastned, a European operator of fast charging stations. The Amsterdam-based company is already the fourteenth international company and the eighth outside the DACH region to develop its own energy management solutions using gridX technology. Fastned’s goal is to build a pan-European network of 1,000 fast charging stations at prime locations where electric cars are charged exclusively with green electricity. gridX enabl...

Digitalization is crucial for the renewable energy transition. Yet it also arouses a number of challenges for establishing, and maintaining, secure power systems. To power a city the size of Hamburg, one single coal power plant suffices – with renewables, more than 500 wind turbines are required. More dynamic challenges Connected systems are needed to enhance flexibility in real time and provide incentives This growing number of producers, which also tend to be more intermittent, make...

Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is the key to smooth communication between an Electric Vehicle Charging Station (EVCS) and the Charging Station Management System (CSMS). They deep dive into the importance of protocols and promoting open standards. There is no shortage of acronyms in energy and mobility, so they certainly don’t blame anyone for mixing up with the multitude of terms. OCPP is a communication protocol that facilitates the exchange of information between EV chargers and thei...