Event report: PEAKapp acceleration event in Vienna

 PEAKapp – Making an impact on European utility markets

PEAKapp’s acceleration event was held in Vienna with guests from numerous European countries on November 8^th 2018. It included four presentations by experts (photos below), a video premiere, and a long-awaited live demonstration, which highlighted the technological details, the user interface and engagement analysis of this green ICT innovation.

The day finally arrived for us to officially present PEAKapp – a smart phone and tablet app for end-user energy management and saving – and field test data to interested stakeholders from the energy sector.  Project Coordinator Johannes Reichl from the Energy Institute at the Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria) opened the event by explaining the PEAKapp approach, the characteristics of the electricity spot market in Europe and how PEAKapp manages to tap into peaks of renewable energy production.

Chief data scientist Jed Cohen from Energy Institute Linz shared his presentation of data analysis from the field tests. Even only preliminary, the data on how 1050 users engaged with PEAKapp during the year-long field test in Upper Austria, is showing encouraging results.

For the first time, Thomas Goette from GreenPocket,  demonstrated the functionalities of PEAKapp and explained the system requirements to the public, many of whom were representatives of European energy utilities.

It was followed by Walter Czetsch from Enamo GmbH, an Upper Austrian energy utility representing LinzAG and EnergieAG, who reported on their experiences during the year-long field trial of PEAKapp, which involved over 1,000 of their household customers, and explained how customers gained valuable insights into their energy consumption behaviour by using the app.

Ana F. Povh from RTDS Group (Austria) presented the impact that EU research and innovation projects are expected to create and how PEAKapp achieved these goals. Afterwards, came the premier of the latest PEAKapp video featuring testimonials from test users and presenting the advantages for European utilities when integrating PEAKapp and providing this tool to their customers.

The event was nicely wrapped by almost hour-long interactive Q&A session between the audience and the presenters which was the specific aim of this event. Many questions came from the participant already during the presentations which made it possible for PEAKapp partners to gain feedback from the respective markets, what are the opportunities and challenges, ideas for multiplication, spreading the message and how to continue after the project is ended.

It was a special pleasure to us, PEAKapp partners, to see several energy utility representatives at the event which makes us hopeful that this technology – that seems to be in demand by its first users – will perhaps be deployed on other markets and hence make a greater impact in terms of sustainability (PEAKapp enables consumption of renewable energy right from the spot market), in terms of increased competitiveness (PEAKapp enables first-mover advantage and direct dialogue with the customer based and hence reduces switching rates) and last but not least, in terms of job creation (new products & services on the market and increased sales).

In the name of all PEAKapp consortium, we would like to thank all the participants and presenters who made this event not only fruitfull but as well pleasant.

Thank you for helping to create an impact!