How will tenants save money with renewable energies?

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Barbara Ricco

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1033 Last modified by the author on 24/09/2019 - 16:57
How will tenants save money with renewable energies?

As Germany’s recent Tenant Electricity Act opens the door to the so-called tenant electricity, Dresden unveils its "Smart Tenants" project to help them saving energy, money and protecting the climate.

 

Before mid-2017, Germany homeowners had difficulties transferring the electricity generated by the own photovoltaic systems installed in their rooftops to the respective homes of their tenants. This is now made possible thanks to the recent Renewable Energy Sources Act. Together with the Tenant Electricity Act, tenants will also have receive cost benefits produced by renewable energies. To ensure the accountability of this green solution, metering and billing issues need to be addressed; very few projects have started working on these problems in the whole Germany.

 

As part of the Smart City MAtchUP project, DREWAG developed its "Smart Tenant" project catered to the city of Dresden. In accordance to the country’s regulatory framework, DREWAG provides tenants renewable local energy at an affordable price.

 

The city is quite popular for its technological expertise and its ICT infrastructures. Its municipality has been investing a lot on energy efficiency and smart mobility solutions; under the MAtchUP project, DREWAG together with other local partners aims at creating a smart city that is Ready for Climate Change.

 

"Dresden and the Cities of Valencia and Antalya are the so-called Lighthouse cities at MAtchUP. DREWAG is proud of this project,” says Mr. Alexander Haidan, MAtchUP Project Leader at DREWAG. “Our project area is Dresden-Johannstadt. There, we are developing solutions that cover different aspects of a Smart City: new services pertaining to photovoltaics (PV), power storage, tenant electricity models will be provided to tenants and the housing industry".

 

The first episode of the video series realised by DREWAG focuses on the "Smart Tenant" project. It shows viewers how tenants are involved in saving energy and in protecting the climate. By the end of 2018, a PV system was installed on the rooftop of Blasewitzer Strasse 36 in Dresden and was used as a basis for the tenant electricity model. But what is the so-called tenant electricity?

 

"Tenant electricity means that the customer is supplied directly from the solar power that is self-generated from their rooftops,” explains Mr. Enrico Neuhaus, energy expert at DREWAG. “Suppose that a 1 to 2-person Household consumes about 1,400 Kilowatt hours per year. This means that a price advantage of up to ten percent over the previous electricity bill. We measure that consumption using an intelligent measuring equipment. It records the exact amount of energy tenants are consuming. These will be then compared alongside with the energy gathered by the PV-System". 

 

And when the sun does not shine, the customers will be supplied with green electricity coming from the public power grid. Finally, all the results will be recorded in the MAtchUP project.

 

Watch the video interview to learn how Dresden is tackling climate change and how DREWAG and local partner are turning it into a Smart City!

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