Markus Linder, CTO of SENEC, on technology for sustainable energy solutions

Comprehensive solutions for an independent and sustainable energy supply are at the core of SENEC’s business. Based in Leipzig, the company has been developing solar installations, electricity storage systems and cloud solutions since 2009 to help its customers achieve a self-sufficient energy supply. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of EnBW, SENEC is currently one of the top three providers in the German market for home storage systems for solar installations – having sold more than 140,000 systems and with a network of over 1,200 specialist partners.

At iteratec, we have been supporting SENEC since 2022 in delivering an excellent and seamless customer experience. This includes, for example, developing portals for customers and specialist partners, as well as providing a state-of-the-art software architecture capable of meeting the growing challenges posed by products and corporate structures.

We speak to Markus Linder, Chief Technology Officer, about the challenges facing SENEC, the future of the energy market and the potential of artificial intelligence.

You’ve been with SENEC since early 2023. What has kept you busiest so far?

Among other things, we’ve launched our new product, the Home4. That was, of course, a very intense phase, which required a great deal of determination and creative solutions in the final stretch.

What can you see from the inside that isn’t visible from the outside?

That’s an interesting question, because before I joined SENEC, I was a customer myself. Now, what strikes me most is just how strongly, how quickly and in what a dynamic market environment SENEC has grown. For us internally, this means that, on the one hand, many processes still need to be consolidated. On the other hand, by coming up with creative solutions, we’re also able to make an impact more quickly.

Speaking of speed. You aim to grow faster than the market, increasing the number of connected applications on the platform from 100,000 to 1 million by 2024. Very ambitious!

We operate in a rapidly expanding market. In such environments, market players regularly disappear. Precisely because we’re also competing with rivals from the Asian market, we must continue to remain competitive on price. This creates cost pressure; at the same time, we want to remain innovation leaders and offer features that only we can deliver. This includes, for example, our specialist partner portal. This makes installation easier for our specialist partners. With EnBW as our parent company, we can also put together unique packages, such as an exclusive electricity tariff for energy storage systems. Essentially, we want to capitalise on our home advantage in particular.

The customer experience should also be premium. What does that mean?

Well, it doesn’t make much sense to design a storage solution to be particularly ‘playful’. After all, configuring a wallbox isn’t something you ‘enjoy’. The key is that the systems are easy to use and simply work. A good experience is all about a high degree of automation and reliability, so that the customer doesn’t have to worry about it.

You operate in a field where regulation and digitalisation clash. Is that a challenge for you?

This is only possible with a clean product architecture. Some products are subject to strict legal standards that we must comply with. That’s a good thing. It also forces us to work very agilely, so that we can implement changes quickly and keep time-to-market short.

In your view, where is SENEC heading over the next 5 to 10 years?

We want to play our part in the energy transition, and energy storage is a key factor in this. It enables us to decouple electricity generation from consumption over time. In other words, when electricity is expensive, customers can simply use their own stored electricity. I’m particularly keen to see the further development of a decentralised energy system, so that private households can generate and store more and more electricity. At the moment, for example, we supply the surplus electricity produced during the day to Switzerland, which then sells it back to us at night as green electricity.

Artificial intelligence is a very prominent topic in public debate. What role will AI play in SENEC’s technology or business model?

Artificial intelligence will be a game-changer for the entire energy transition, for example when it comes to forecasting electricity generation, optimising the charging and discharging of storage systems, and in combination with dynamic electricity tariffs traded on the exchange. There are a great many use cases. Even without AI, we can still achieve a great deal with our technology – specifically in terms of shorter product development cycles, improved production, and more affordable and even more customer-friendly products.

Which AI solutions are already in use?

For example, we have functions for our devices that we call ‘peak shaving’. These are designed to balance out peaks in electricity demand in order to achieve as consistent an energy demand as possible throughout the day. This can be combined with AI-based usage prediction to charge storage systems more intelligently. The storage system can thus prepare in advance for future loads and store energy accordingly. This energy can then be used, for example, to charge an electric vehicle when it is clear that solar energy will not be sufficient later on.

At iteratec, we are committed to helping our customers become digital champions. Speaking on behalf of SENEC, can you also rally behind this ambition?

Definitely.

Thank you for your time and for this fascinating interview!