Between the Bremen districts of Neustadt and Woltmershausen, Peper & Söhne is building the DGNB Gold pre-certified Quartier Spurwerk. Working environments and commercial units with showrooms, office, craft and catering areas are being created on around 90,000 square metres. The project developer from Bremen not only places ecologically sustainable demands on the quarter, but also wants to meet the needs of the new tenants for digital, innovative and user-friendly solutions in the best possible way.
Standard solutions on the market often do not offer transparency about consumption and costs
In dialogue with tenants, Peper & Söhne has noted, among other aspects, increased cost and energy awareness. The expectations are clear: always be informed about the amount of costs and consumption incurred.
In the majority of German properties, analogue electricity meters are currently still installed as standard. They make it difficult to regularly view consumption data and thus also data-based optimizations. This standard is therefore not a solution for the plans on the track. Instead, innovative solutions are needed. Energy monitoring tools with smart meters offer opportunities for simplification.
Smart metering describes a computer-aided method for recording the consumption of a property in real time using smart metering systems. Smart meters are meters necessary for this purpose with a connection to a central communication unit (data logger) to which the meter readings are forwarded.
Sustainability and innovation: the driving force behind the new track system
The importance of intelligent energy monitoring solutions in the building sector is growing – also due to the legal requirement for efficient media consumption recording, which is firmly anchored in the Building Energy Act (GEG 24). According to this, non-residential buildings with a nominal output of over 290 kilowatts must ensure continuous monitoring, logging and analysis of the consumption of all main energy sources as well as all building technology systems.
Even during the construction project preparation, the Bremen-based project developer is concerned with holistic energy monitoring for the commercial district. “It is our aspiration not only to meet the interest of our tenants in innovative solutions in the area of consumption transparency. For us, the goals we have set ourselves are also a strong driver for the development of our projects: advancing digitalization, the long-term nature of our projects and the fulfillment of our sustainability goals,” says Christoph Peper, Managing Partner of Peper & Söhne.
Peper & Söhne: Requirements for comprehensive energy monitoring for new construction projects
When looking for a suitable provider, it was clear to the project developer: The energy monitoring solution should have as few interfaces as possible, be able to display several rental units per customer together and enable comprehensive real-time monitoring.
The ability to analyze and optimize the operation of the property using real-time data benefits both the owner and the tenants of the properties. This is because they can optimize the costs incurred and the ecological footprint with active energy management. With +monitor Smart Metering from Goldbeck, Peper & Söhne has found a solution that easily shows sensible control interventions to optimize consumption. “We integrate the meters according to the usage concept of the property so that all data flows together in a meaningful way and is always clearly displayed. In doing so, we serve properties of all asset classes,” explains Nicolas Opitz, Project Manager +monitor Smart Metering at Goldbeck.
Optimize energy consumption with +monitor smart metering from Goldbeck
As a complete solution consisting of systematized hardware, intuitive dashboard and tailor-made service, +monitor enables users to collect data transparently – and thus creates control over any consumption.
A well-structured, intuitive dashboard uses smart meters to record all energy and media consumption: from electricity to water, gas and heat to cooling. Data can be accessed at any time via a web browser in a convenient and GDPR-compliant manner. Exportable data for further processing, for example for energy management or utility billing, is also part of the solution.
Goldbeck is also retrofitting the complete solution in existing properties. This improves sustainable building operation and facilitates subsequent certification intentions on the part of portfolio holders.
Goldbeck +monitor in the track system
For the track plant, where Peper & Söhne pursues a holistic management approach, the +monitor solution was implemented in cooperation with Goldbeck in line with requirements. “Together with Goldbeck, we designed the planning and execution process from the very beginning and received an adaptable overall product from a single source that reduces the necessary interfaces to a minimum. This saves us a lot of time, enables us to focus on our core tasks and at the same time meets the requirements of the GEG for media consumption recording,” says Gerrit Hilgendorff, Head of IT at Peper & Söhne.
“In the case of a new building, we can develop an individual meter concept based on the usage planning. This simplifies the implementation and installation of the meters,” confirms Nicolas Opitz, Goldbeck. “Once the overall concept is in place, however, changes, e.g. in the event of a change of tenant or spatial change, can also be flexibly adapted. We are also transferring our more than 15 years of experience in the field of smart metering to retrofitting in existing buildings.”
From now on, the tailor-made solution will enable Peper & Söhne to record and control all consumption of all properties on the Spurwerk site in a consolidated manner, but still precisely for tenants. As part of the solution, all tenants receive individual system access and can view their own consumption data at a glance. Both tenants and owners can identify consumption anomalies and take countermeasures in real time.
Conclusion Peper & Söhne on +monitor Smart Metering
“The partnership with Goldbeck for the track system has enabled us to take a significant step towards sustainable and innovative energy management. +monitor is not only an extension of our range of services, but also embodies in a revolutionary way how we understand and apply energy monitoring. Thanks to its intuitive usability, seamless integration into our properties and comprehensive coverage of all consumables, +monitor offers unsurpassed transparency and control over energy consumption from a single source. This reduces emissions and saves costs as well as valuable resources,” emphasizes Gerrit Hilgendorff of Peper & Söhne.
This article was written in collaboration with GOLDBECK.
