Viessmann and 50Hertz cooperate on intelligent control of heat pumps
Service that allows customers to reduce their electricity bill / Climate comfort for residents remains as high as usual / Participants make an active contribution to the success of the energy transition
Allendorf (Eder), Dec 28, 2021 – In order to further promote the convergence of heat and power and to help the energy transition succeed, Viessmann is expanding its cooperation with transmission system operators (TSOs) on "Energy of the Future" and has now signed a cooperation agreement with the company "50Hertz".
Thanks to the cooperation with 50Hertz, the pilot project initiated together with TenneT TSO GmbH to use the flexibility potential of heat pumps for congestion management can now be extended to the 50Hertz control area. Viessmann will bundle the flexible capacity of heat pumps in the ViShare Energy Community and offer it to the two transmission system operators via the Equigy crowd balancing platform for system-serving use.
Viessmann has been offering a heating tariff tailored to heat pumps in cooperation with Energy Market Solutions GmbH ("EMS") since 2017: The ViShare heat-electricity tariff. The contractual partner is EMS, a subsidiary of the Viessmann Group. The heating tariff offers customers the opportunity to reduce the electricity purchase price by several cents per kilowatt hour in return for the local distribution network operator being granted controlling access to the heat pump. Depending on the amount of electricity, this can mean savings of several hundred euros per year.
The extra-high voltage grid is also not free of bottlenecks
The reason for Viessmann's intensive cooperation with transmission system operators is that there are also bottlenecks in the extra-high voltage grid. The family-owned company wants to offer its customers the opportunity to also provide services for the transmission grid and thus reduce their electricity bills. For customers participating in the pilot program, Viessmann transmits the operation of the heat pump the next day. 50Hertz checks the grid load and, in the event of congestion, reports back, for example: "Please reduce heat pump electricity demand by 10 percent in this or that hour!" After the signal is received by Viessmann, it is passed on to the participating heat pumps via the company's own energy platform. In the households of the participating customers, the operation of the heat pump is then shifted in an hour. To ensure that the climate comfort for the residents remains as high as usual, the Viessmann energy platform takes into account data from the heating system, such as the temperature in the heat storage tank or whether the heat pump has already been heating for some time beforehand.
Contribution to a stable power supply system
The overriding goal of the corporate cooperation is to jointly find out what contribution Viessmann customers can make to a stable power supply system - while enjoying full climate comfort.
Anyone who wants to make an active contribution to the success of the energy transition with their heat pump must fulfill the following conditions:
- Technology: The heat pump must have been installed in 2017 or later and must be from Viessmann.
- Connectivity: The connection of the Viessmann app "ViCare" is used for data transmission and control. Linking the heat pump via ViCare is therefore a prerequisite. The app is free of charge, more information here on our ViCare App page
- Heating electricity tariff: The "flexibility bonus" is paid out by the energy supplier Energy Market Solutions. For this, it is a prerequisite that a suitable ViShare electricity tariff is concluded: The ViShare Heat Electricity and the ViShare Pro Tariff (contact via the link below).
- Contact: Interested operators of a Viessmann heat pump can leave their contact details on vishare.viessmann.de in order to plan the next steps together with Viessmann.