Every First Step is Worth an AWARD

Interview with Christian Reetz, Managing Director and Head of Development at Mondas

In 2019, Mondas won The smarter E AWARD in the Outstanding Projects category. Which project did you submit?

Our project “Intelligent heating network Gutleutmatten”, which we used to apply for the award in 2019, was one of Mondas’ first projects. It consisted of a solar heating network supplied by 38 decentralized thermal solar systems. The entire system, including heating circuits, solar systems, heat storage tanks, pumps and valves, was connected to and monitored via our IOT data platform. Over 4,000 data points were analyzed in real time, just as today. The goal was to minimize heat distribution losses, quickly detect operating errors in the solar installations, and maximize the share of solar energy in the grid. At the time, this level of digitalization of a renewable heating network was unprecedented. Now, five years on, it is a fundamental principle in the heating transition.

How did you feel when you won the AWARD?

As a small, young start-up, winning the award was a big surprise for us. Our competitors were top-notch, established candidates from all over Europe, whose competition entries were truly outstanding. When the host at the awards ceremony in Munich announced that we had won, we were overcome with joy. Looking back, we are still grateful to the panel of judges for recognizing the potential of our software solutions in the future at such an early stage. Digitalization has become a powerful tool for increasing reliability, supply security and efficiency of energy systems, all while reducing carbon emissions. Back in 2019, this approach was not as established as it is today.

What was the response in your industry? Were there any specific comments, new partnerships, or other measurable successes?

The smarter E AWARD helped our then young company stand out from the crowd – we noticed this at our exhibition booth the day after the award ceremony. Our award winner banner turned out to be a real crowd puller! The organizer’s press report and our own PR activities catapulted Mondas and our data analytics platform into the industry spotlight. This level of visibility helped a lot – especially in terms of generating leads and initiating projects.

The smarter E AWARD was a seal of quality, bestowed by a high-caliber panel of judges. Of course, we are proud to display this award publicly, as it builds trust in our company and our data analytics technology.

How has your company developed since then and how has the AWARD helped?

Mondas is now a popular software house with numerous intelligent digital solutions for the energy transition. Our local energy service provider badenova, whose subsidiary badenovaWärmeplus won the award together with us in 2019, is now the lead investor in our latest Series A funding round. A deep mutual trust has developed from what started as a project-based partnership. badenova has established the digitalization of the energy transition as one of its future business area, which we now want to drive forward together. Furthermore, the award has opened and will continue to open doors to new partners and pan-European projects.

What has become of the project? What milestones, achievements or changes have you made since then?

What began with the optimization of a solar heating network has now expanded to other areas. Today, our mondas® IOT data platform can be used for a wide range of applications. Among other products, we offer a software for fully automated monitoring of large PV portfolios. We also provide energy and technical monitoring of properties and support CHP plant operators with their predictive maintenance.

The big advantage of our platform is its high connectivity: We can integrate various different power plants, storage systems and consumers and analyze their data on a single platform. This open up a whole range of new possibilities, including for grid-serving storage and load management in energy systems.

A recent example is the renewable heating network in the Bavarian village of Bundorf, which primarily uses PV-powered heat pumps as heat sources. Our software makes the most of the electricity generated by the PV power plant, including from a financial point of view: When electricity spot prices are low, the system gives priority to filling the heat storage systems. When feed-in tariffs are high, the electricity is fed into the grid. At the same time, our software ensures a reliable supply of renewable heat for the residents.