Success Story - naturenergie netze GmbH

The customer

naturenergie netze GmbH is the grid provider for South Baden. More than 350 employees ensure a secure power supply and the integration of decentralised feed-in systems. naturenergie netze GmbH is a partner to local authorities and supports them with grid-related services, such as water supply and street lighting. The grid area covers the region south of Freiburg to the Hochrhein in the west. In the east, it extends from Lake Constance to the north of Villingen-Schwenningen. The company's aim is to make the grids efficient for the energy world of the future. naturenergie netze GmbH has a local presence throughout South Baden via decentralised bases. It is part of the German-Swiss naturenergie group of companies. The naturenergie group of companies stands for three central pillars of the energy transition: Ecological. Economical. Regional. For more than 125 years, it has been an eco-pioneer in the South Baden region and Switzerland, driving forward the energy transition with innovative solutions in the fields of hydropower, photovoltaics and heat.

Energy data analysis as a service for local authorities

The grid operator planned to offer municipalities in their grid area the opportunity to independently retrieve energy data such as electricity consumption and usage types. ‘Cooperation with the municipalities is important to us, because the energy transition can only be realised together,’ explains Thomas Sauter, Municipal Manager for the Schwarzwald-Baar-Hegau-Bodensee region at naturenergie netze GmbH. ‘As a grid operator, we therefore not only want to offer the towns and municipalities in the region a reliable and sustainable grid infrastructure, but also provide them with more comprehensive insights into their energy consumption. Based on this information, the municipalities can then take measures to further optimise their electricity consumption.’

In order to offer users a seamless information experience in the naturenergie netze look, the solution was to be fully integrated into a comprehensive municipal portal that is currently being developed. 

Dashboard integration with Qlik Mashup

The naturenergie Group already had the right solution in-house: the group has been using Qlik for several years to analyse data from source systems such as SAP ISU for internal purposes. The company also had very fond memories of working with Informatec as an experienced Qlik Elite Channel Partner: in addition to the technological expertise, the fact that Informatec pursues a customer-oriented approach that is tailored to the specific needs and requirements of each customer was convincing. The process begins with a thorough analysis of the customer's business requirements and data landscape. Based on these findings, Informatec develops customised BI solutions that include the design of dashboards, reports and data models. These solutions are seamlessly integrated into the customer's existing systems.

‘We had a clear idea of what the solution should look like. We looked at various products, but quickly realised that Qlik Sense and Informatec's requirements-oriented development approach were the best choice for us,’ says Thomas Sauter. 

Informatec first took the specific requirements regarding the desired analyses and visualisations from naturenergie netze and implemented them in a Qlik Sense dashboard. The next step was to ensure that the energy data dashboard was also integrated into the web portal as desired and that it corresponded to naturenergie netze's new brand identity. Informatec also had the right idea for this: by using Qlik Mashups, companies can combine the powerful analysis capabilities of Qlik Sense with the flexibility and customisability of a user-defined web application. Dashboards created in Qlik Sense can be integrated into internal portals or websites to provide employees or customers with important data and analyses in naturenergie netze's corporate design.

‘The collaboration was very good, uncomplicated and always focussed on our specific requirements - from conception to testing to go-live,’ says Thomas Sauter. naturenergie netze now operates the solution independently - with the option of receiving support from Informatec at any time.

Hybrid Qlik operation

The Qlik Sense Dashboard in naturenergie netze's corporate design is operated as Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Qlik Cloud. Data processing takes place in a locally hosted (on-premise) Qlik Sense instance before the updated data is automatically transferred to the SaaS solution. The entire ETL route is therefore carried out on-premise and only the finished dashboard as the basis for the mashup is published in the cloud. The mashup accesses the SaaS structures, but is physically located on naturenergie netze's web server.

This ensures that there is no direct external access to the internally managed data. Login with corresponding authentication takes place via the municipal portal. 

Municipal energy data at the push of a button

The dashboard provides local authorities with data such as the number of consumption points and electricity consumption in the categories of private households, commerce, agriculture and street lighting. Information can also be called up on the amount of electricity generated that was fed into the grid via around 25,000 feed-in points such as photovoltaic, wind power or CHP plants in the municipality's district and the percentage of electricity consumption covered by renewable energies. For the segment of large consumers such as large hotels and industrial companies, in addition to the meter data, the voltage level at which they are connected to the grid is also mapped.

The municipalities also receive an overview of municipal properties such as the building yard and their consumption.

Consumption and generation data from the past five years are shown, so that developments over time can also be tracked. For example, it is possible to precisely measure and visualise the effect of energy-saving measures such as converting streetlights to LED or energy-efficient renovation measures on buildings.

The data can be visualised in the form of various diagrams so that information can be captured at a glance. 

Strengthened customer loyalty

„We are very satisfied with the result and have received a lot of positive feedback from the municipalities that use the portal,’ concludes Thomas Sauter. ‘For us, the dashboard is a key component of our new municipal portal, which helps us to strengthen our customer relationships, improve service quality and strengthen our position in the network operator market.“