Smart meter success story at ZIA committee meeting

How do you transform the energy management of a global retail market leader in less than a year? In front of a specialist audience from the property industry, we showed how agility and technological excellence can accelerate the smart meter revolution in retail and how companies can make their energy consumption visible in the shortest possible time.

Hundreds of locations in 22 countries and 10 months: A logistical masterpiece

Embedded in an exciting programme, we provided in-depth insights into the successful smart meter rollout. Within just 10 months, the DOUGLAS Group installed a complete smart meter system in around 1,800 buildings across 22 countries. ESG-compliant energy monitoring implemented. For the members of the ZIA (Zentraler Immobilien Ausschuss e.V. - German Property Federation), the presentation offered valuable practical experience on how companies can remain capable of acting despite complex ESG legislation and also reduce their energy costs. Lars Bangemann (Senior Manager Construction Maintenance & Repair, DOUGLAS Group) showed which issues the DOUGLAS Group dealt with in the run-up to the project and which criteria were particularly relevant. deZem reported on the roll-out of the project and showed real measurement data, on the basis of which the DOUGLAS Group can now tackle in-depth optimisation processes.

Strategic insights for the property industry

In dialogue with industry experts, we shared five key success factors that make the smart meter project a pioneering case:

• Agility beats complexity: By clarifying all ESG regulatory parameters at an early stage, we reduced complexity and gained speed, which enabled us to utilise a particularly agile sensor technology.
• Efficiency through orchestration: A rollout of this magnitude in such a short space of time can only be achieved through the perfect interplay of planning, hardware, software and the installation teams on site. Thanks to easy-to-install LoRaWAN current sensors and a sophisticated installation app, each installation team was able to equip up to 6 branches per day and also carry out the documentation for each location directly via this app.
• Future-proof as standard: A future-proof overall system is essential! It should be flexibly expandable and ready for future requirements (e.g. CO2 sensors, system control, etc.). With the deZem DataSuite, the DOUGLAS Group now utilises a IoT software, which not only enables efficient energy management and sustainability reporting, but also offers a wide range of expansion options on demand and is modularly expandable.
• Harvest low-hanging fruit: Sustainability and profitability are not contradictory. We have proven that targeted monitoring can achieve immediate efficiency gains that sustainably optimise the cost structure.
• Partnership as a model for success: Seamless communication with those responsible at the DOUGLAS Group and the deZem project management team was an important key to success. Short decision-making paths, regular jours fixes and pragmatic solutions on site guaranteed a smooth process - even with complex requirements and unplanned tasks.

With this report from the field, we were able to present ZIA committee meeting show that the smart meter rollout in the retail sector does not have to be a mammoth, long-term project if the right strategy and scalable technology are used and if we work together as partners.

Find out more about the project