Business models in a liberalised energy market - potential through the use of modern communication and measurement/control technology in electricity metering

Liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets and the increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind, fuel cells and photovoltaics are bringing about a structural change in the energy supply. The increasing decentralisation of electricity and heat generation is placing new demands on energy supply and energy management in order to ensure security and quality of supply. The previous "top-down" concept for generation, supply and control must be reconsidered with regard to the "bottom-up" integration of decentralised generation and consumer structures. In this context, new business areas for innovative products and services are emerging. In addition to the global changes mentioned above, the increasing networking of households, office buildings and small businesses via DSL, for example, combined with the networking of systems within buildings, offers new opportunities to measure the usage behaviour and electricity consumption of local consumers and generators and to make this data available to a central or decentralised unit, which can then carry out optimised control of the systems based on current consumption requirements and tariffs. Such technological approaches are currently being researched by the Design Centre of the OFFIS R&D department Embedded Hardware/Software Systems as part of various research projects. Among other things, a hardware prototype has been developed for the exact multi-channel measurement of generated and consumed electricity, which can be connected to existing building networks and the Internet via various communication interfaces.

Research question:

The aim of this Diplom thesis is to develop business models and ideas based on innovative communication and measurement/control technology for electricity metering in a liberalised energy market. Aspects that should be taken into consideration are

• Possible customer groups and market segments, market potential
• Opportunities and risks for these business ideas
• Market research (competitor analysis, innovative edge)
• Legal requirements
• Renewable Energies Act (EEG)
• Energy Industry Act (EnWG), legal unbundling
• Regional specialities for the Weser-Ems region
• Price calculation
• Advertising strategies
• Sales, sales costs, choice of sales channels
• What are the trends in the most important neighbouring markets?
• Business plan, business cases
• Who are the stakeholders? What does a balanced score card look like in this environment?

Contact person:

Prof. Dr Alexander Nicolai

Technical know-how and preparatory work (e.g. market research) will be provided by the Embedded Hardware/Software Systems research department at OFFIS for the Diplom thesis. The thesis will be supervised by Prof. Dr Alexander Nicolai and the Embedded Hardware/Software Systems research department at OFFIS.

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