- Bonn-based Group seals full package for energy suppliers
- Installation, maintenance, remote control and web portal from a single source
- Beginning April 1: Subsidy from Germany's federal government for small power plants
Deutsche Telekom offers energy providers a full package for virtual power plants. The partners for the collaboration are Motoren-AT, a builder of combined heat and power plants (CHPP), and GreenCom, a specialist in energy communications. The new offering consists of installation and maintenance of the CHPP, remote controlling of the plant for the energy providers as well as a web portal for the property owners. "This solution allows energy suppliers to quickly market small CHPPs and then control them in the form of a virtual power plant. In this way, providers will in the future be able to compensate for power grid fluctuations at the push of a button," explains Gabriele Riedmann de Trinidad, Head of the Group business area for Energy at Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom uses its communication infrastructure and its expertise with mass data to build the intelligent power grid of the future and tap new growth potential. Virtual power plants A micro-CHPP consists of a motor that supplies both hot water and power. Customers who consume power on site therefore reduce the load on the power grid and avoid line loss. Energy suppliers can also access small power plants via a DSL line or secure mobile communications connection. This provides surplus reserves for periods when renewable energy sources cannot deliver enough power. Several small, decentralized plants thus make up a large virtual power plant. "Integrating decentralized power generation structures not only increases efficiency; it is also an important step towards increasing supply reliability in the age of renewable energy," said Dr. Christian Feißt, CEO of GreenCom Networks. Subsidy for micro-CHPPs Dragan Popov, CEO of Motoren-AT, expects to see a boom in micro-CHPPs in the coming years: "Germany's federal government wants to see the share of power supplied from highly efficient heat and electricity cogeneration increased from the current 16 percent to 25 percent by 2020 - which also involves the use of small CHPPs." The Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) will be accepting funding applications beginning April 1. For example, the BAFA will offer 19 KW plants a one-time subsidy of EUR 3,450.
About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with over 129 million mobile customers, 34 million fixed-network lines and almost 17 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2011). The Group provides fixed-network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 235,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year – more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011).