PeakPick
Sascha Greilinger | Coburg University
The amount of renewable energy in the power grid is hugely dependent on the weather and the time of day. The app PeakPick is a seasonal calendar for green electricity that helps to adjust consumption to the output of wind and solar plants. This is already practiced in industry in the form of so-called “load shifting”. PeakPick opens up this potential for private households and facilitates entry into flexible electricity consumption. By shifting the activation of devices to a period with a high share of renewable power generation, it is possible for everyone to make a valuable contribution to the energy transition.
Award winner 2022 in the category »Nachwuchs«»This clear and user-friendly application provides up-to-date and local information about the availability (or not) of green electricity. As such, users are made aware of the issue and their consumption behaviour is cultivated until the service, quite intentionally, makes itself redundant through the acquired routine.«
Prof. Matthias Held
Three questions for Sascha Greilinger
How did the idea for PeakPick come about?
During my training as an electrical engineer, I gave a great deal of thought to climate-friendly power supply using wind and solar systems, as well as the advantages of dynamic power consumption.
Against this backdrop, I have tried to adapt my own consumption to renewable energies, such as moving clothes washing to the weekend or to midday hours, or eating only cold foods in the evenings. My bachelor thesis was aimed at creating greater awareness of this topic in general.
What was your personal highlight in the development process for PeakPick? Was there a low point?
The highlight was when I was working with an IT specialist and we succeeded at least in part in using real energy data to bring something to life that had previously only existed as a draft. This was basically inasmuch as it had a genuine impact and could be used by people.
As low points, I could mention the withdrawal of a number of stakeholders in the energy transition with whom we had been discussing potential collaborations. But that should not make you lose faith in an idea of which you are convinced.
Where do you see your project in five years?
I hope that the necessity for this transformation at the societal level and the benefits for the energy transition will be recognised, and that the project will be promoted accordingly. Regardless of this, I would definitely like to create an organisation of some sort that uses digital tools to advance this transition on a voluntary basis. If we could start something in the next years that’s had the impact of, for example, the urban cycling organisation “Stadtradeln”, that would be amazing.
