It used to be common to get a phone with your cell phone contract. Start-up Netzflex wants to make it possible for every electricity customer to get a controllable storage system for their home as part of their electricity supply contract. The aim is to enable as many electricity customers as possible to benefit from dynamic electricity prices and grid charges. This is Tobias Mader’s vision. In this interview, he explains how he plans to achieve this, what the company’s business model is and what his grandma has to do with it all.
Mr. Mader, when did you found Netzflex – and where did you get the idea?
Netzflex GmbH was founded in Altenstadt in Upper Bavaria in 2019. We wanted to develop a solution that would enable all electricity customers to take part in the energy transition. I got the idea after talking to my grandma, who lives on the third floor of a multi-family dwelling. She complained that while I was making money from wind and solar power, she was paying more for electricity from these sources. My grandma thought this was an issue. And she’s right: There is no company that supports people who live in multi-family dwellings. I, on the other hand, live in a single-family home with a PV system, a storage system, a heat pump and an electric car. Only 20 percent of my electricity comes from the grid, which helps me save a lot of money.
You’ve reached a self-sufficiency rate of 80 percent?
That’s right, and it gets even better: With my controllable consumers, the grid operator will soon be able to control my consumption, allowing me to benefit from the financial bonus under Section 14a of the German Energy Industry Act. So I’m privileged and set to have an even better situation in the future. The energy technology for electricity customers is tailored exactly to my needs. I have our government to thank for that. My grandma, on the other hand, is left out in the cold.
She’s one of 29 million electricity customers in Germany who are excluded from these benefits. That’s three-quarters of the total 40 million homes connected to the electricity mains. She doesn’t even have a balcony for a small solar installation, let alone any controllable consumers such as a heat pump, an electric car or a battery storage system. This doesn't seem fair. So we thought: There has to be some other way. For the energy transition to be successful, we need to ensure broad acceptance, which can only be achieved by finding solutions that meet everyone’s needs.
Your start-up’s USP is controlling loads, such as through residential storage systems or e-cars. How exactly does your business model work?
We want every apartment to have a storage system which can be controlled by the utilities and used to make money at the energy exchange and in the power grid. That way, all electricity customers will be able to benefit from dynamic electricity prices and grid charges. Utilities will use our technology and the smart metering system to control storage systems. With our help, utilities and the smart meter infrastructure provide everything required to control the customer’s storage device. What was missing was a standardized storage system that could be plugged into Schuko sockets and easily installed through plug and play, as well as a control and communication channel between the storage system and the utilities. But we’re about to change that: Netzflex will provide storage systems and a control tool from January 2025.
Who is your target group? And can multi-family dwellings also benefit from this?
Our products are designed for utilities that want to offer their customers affordable green power. There are over 1,000 utility companies in Germany. They could offer our storage system directly to their customers with the electricity supply contract. If the customer chooses this option, the utility company then changes the supply contract to a dynamic tariff and we send one of our controllable storage systems. The customer is guaranteed to be supplied with the cheapest and greenest electricity from the balancing group of the utility company. So our model works as B2B2C. This means We provide the utilities with a white label product with full service. We take care of shipping, customer service, controlling, repairs and, if desired, financing the storage system through a lease offer.
So the electricity customer basically receives the storage system as an add-on to their electricity supply contract, similar to getting a cell phone with your cell phone contract?
That’s right. The advantage for utilities: They can use this to extend the customer retention period. The flexibilization and controllability of their customers – such as “dimming” (i.e. reducing consumption) according to Section 14a of the German Energy Industry Act – allows them to optimize their electricity purchase and achieve grid-charge reductions. How much of their savings they pass on to their customers is up to them. We enable utilities to provide their customers a future-proof electricity product that massively improves their position in the market. In terms of hardware, all we need to provide are a residential storage system and an intelligent metering system.
Are there similar services in other EU countries that are more advanced in terms of digitalization?
Tibber offers controllable storage systems in northern Europe. However, we have already informed Tibber that their services may be in violation of our patent.
What are your goals for the next three years?
We want to deliver the first version of our storage system in the first quarter of 2025. Until then, we need to increase production, finalize the logistics concept and staff up our service department. We’re far from being short on work: We need to connect the storage swarm to the balancing groups in a standardized way and develop a leasing concept for utilities. If all goes according to plan, the second version of the storage system will be launched in the years that follow. We also need an update system for repairing storage systems, and we need to keep pushing towards internationalization. Exciting times ahead!
This interview was conducted by Niels H. Petersen.
