From Meter to Added Value – Energie Steiermark as a Digital Pioneer
Energie Steiermark Wärme GmbH, Austria
Reading all meters at the push of a button – Wolfgang Fink, Metering Team Leader at Energie Steiermark Wärme GmbH, is already close to this goal. Today, around 13,000 meters are integrated via the READy Fixed Network, and an additional 350 installations in topographically challenging areas are remotely read via NB-IoT. The models used are MULTICAL® 403, 603, and 803.
Energie Steiermark at a Glance
Energie Steiermark is one of Austria’s largest energy service providers. The company stands for energy efficiency and innovative services in electricity, natural gas, heating, broadband, and mobility. Their power generation relies on renewable energy from water, wind, and solar.
In 24 cities and municipalities, Energie Steiermark supplies its customers with highly efficient district heating. More than 80% of the heat already comes from renewables, industrial waste heat, and combined heat and power – meeting EU efficiency guidelines and positioning the company as a pioneer in sustainable heat supply. This share is set to increase further in the coming years.
Initial experiences with Heat Intelligence
Three district heating networks are now equipped with Heat Intelligence – two of them have already successfully completed an entire heating season. “It’s all about the return temperature. Lowering it is the biggest challenge,” explains Fink. External temperatures, which directly affect the system, are also taken into account.
The benefits are clear: optimised deployment planning at the heating plant, improved customer service, and noticeably higher efficiency. Especially in cases of complaints, the combination of READy and Heat Intelligence has proven effective: precise visualisations help customers optimise their consumption behaviour.
Practical examples from Deutschlandsberg
The effectiveness of the solution was demonstrated in the pilot project in Deutschlandsberg: During commissioning, around 50 faulty customer installations with defective controllers were identified via READy. With Heat Intelligence, the data could be further refined – allowing a high-pressure point in the network to be identified and corrected with a targeted bypass. “Our network is now very well optimised. Heat Intelligence serves as a control instance to uncover further savings and optimisation potential,” explains Fink.
From baby to teenager – a rapid development
For the metering expert, it’s clear: “The system has developed rapidly – from a baby to a teenager. Now it’s about growing up.”
Above all, data quality has made enormous progress: Reading or transmission errors are a thing of the past, and billing is done within a few days at the push of a button.
Customer inquiries, which have increased due to rising energy prices, can now be answered more quickly and competently – often directly by customer service without an on-site appointment.
Partnership on Equal Terms
Energie Steiermark and Kamstrup have shared a close partnership since 1998. Today, Energie Steiermark consistently uses Kamstrup meters up to DN 100. “We especially value the solution-oriented approach and the collaborative partnership – it’s a continuous learning process together,” emphasizes Fink.
As a pioneer in remote reading, Energie Steiermark adopted radio solutions in drive-by mode as early as 2003 – a milestone on the path to greater efficiency and innovation.
No standstill – looking ahead
Always moving forward and staying open to innovation – this guiding principle will continue to shape Energie Steiermark’s future. In the next four years, another 2,000 installations are to be converted to modern Wireless M-Bus or NB-IoT solutions.
Wolfgang Fink emphasizes one particular wish: “Since we are always in tune with the times and embrace technological developments, it’s important to us that new solutions remain compatible in the long term.” The goal is clear: to provide green energy efficiently and further optimise the networks through digital technologies.
