Up onto the roof and into the Azure Cloud: Enpal powers the energy transition with photovoltaic systems

The challenge: Implementing big plans for growth in a dynamic business environment

In Germany, installing a photovoltaic system on your roof involves a lot of bureaucracy, and operating it tends to be cumbersome. That’s exactly what Enpal intends to mitigate with its rent model: Customers rent the solar panels and pay a fixed monthly fee that also includes a peace-of-mind package complete with installation, insurance, monitoring, and so on. After 20 years, customers can purchase the panels for a symbolic price of just one euro. “Particularly in the current situation, the energy issue is increasingly taking center stage. Customers are wondering where they’re going to get power for their house, their electric vehicle, or their heating,” says Benjamin Merle, Chief Product Officer at Enpal. “That’s why we want to consistently provide our customers with precisely the energy they need—at the lowest price and with the smallest ecological footprint.”

This requires a flexible and scalable IT landscape that provides optimum support for this endeavor. Enpal plans to install about one million photovoltaic systems by 2030. The technological basis has to always be two or three steps ahead of this development, and it must be able to respond to unforeseen changes such as changes in legislation. That’s why Enpal has relied on a cloud solution right from the outset. For the company’s IT infrastructure, this means fewer tool discontinuities, a clear setup, and easier operation. “With the cloud, we have a ready-to-run solution for our energy platform, which we use to manage all our energy processes,” says Mike Schober, Vice President Energy Platform at Enpal. “It’s very straightforward, so we can focus completely on our business.”

The solution: An energy platform based on Azure as the process hub

The core element of Enpal’s photovoltaic systems is an IoT edge device. It connects and controls all the components installed on-site and collects data to monitor the system. “Capacity and control are intelligently divided up between the device and the cloud, and these interact with each other,” Schober says. “The devices themselves are also highly intelligent. For example, they regulate the maximum amount of power an electric vehicle can charge so that no additional power has to be purchased from the grid. In the background, Azure IoT Hub functions as a communication tool between the edge device and the back end. Products such as SQL Server on Azure and Azure SQL Database are responsible for storing the data. For larger amounts of data, Enpal relies on Azure Blob Storage. Cluster solutions are processed via Azure Service Fabric, while Azure App Configuration and Azure Digital Twins ensure continuous adjustment and configuration.

The energy platform thus supports all processes in all areas. Since the device and the cloud are connected through Azure IoT Hub, the edge devices can be automatically configured while still in production. When it comes to installing the systems on-site, Enpal now also fully relies on automatic rather than manual installation. This speeds up the whole installation process and at the same time minimizes the likelihood of errors. This approach not only gets the system up onto the roof sooner, but it also makes more efficient use of the limited availability of skilled workers.

As soon as the system is in operation, it constantly sends data to the cloud. The monitoring this creates ensures that the system does in fact produce the projected amount of energy. This benefits not only the customers but Enpal as well: in the highly dynamic energy market, the company must be able to predict as accurately as possible how much energy will be needed at a particular point in time. Here, too, the cloud solution based on Microsoft Azure helps minimize potential risks and gaps.

“On top of that, we make a promise to our customers: we guarantee a service life of 20 years. We have to know at all times how the system is developing and where problems might occur, so we can take countermeasures and make adjustments for the future. In addition, we have to keep our software up to date the entire time, adapt it to new legal requirements, and integrate new functions,” says Christine Prauschke, Chief Digital Officer at Enpal. Thanks to detailed data analyses and the flexibility of the cloud, however, Prauschke sees no reason for concern.

“To drive the energy transition in Germany forward, we need solar panels on every roof. To this end, we must be able to scale and keep growing. The cloud provides a fast, ideal, and cost-efficient basis for this,” Benjamin Merle says. “What’s more, the cloud gives us the chance to set industry standards. This will make disconnected components a thing of the past, as the data is always readily available and thus allows for a more efficient use of energy.”