The Personal Energy Administration Kiosk Application (PEAKapp), a smartphone and tablet app for end-user energy management and savings, will help increase the integration of smart meters and enable consumers to monitor their instant consumption and gauge how to use energy more efficiently, according to Serhat Çeçen, the chairman of the Association of Electricity Distribution System Operators (ELDER).
ELDER is an umbrella association of Turkey's 21 electricity distribution companies.
Çeçen said PEAKapp is one of their two projects that received a grant from the European Commission Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. He added that ELDER, in a combined effort with the whole sector, aims to make energy efficiency part of daily life.
"PEAKapp is a project that will contribute to this aim. In the coming years with the growing number of smart meters, PEAKapp is expected to be one of the most-used applications," he said.
PEAKapp was derived from the three-year Research & Innovation project. The PEAKapp consortium is composed of organizations including electricity retailers, two software developers, research and innovation centers, universities, and ELDER, the electricity distribution umbrella association, as well as Turkey's Başkent Electricity Distribution Company. Çeçen added that PEAKapp provides end users with a wide range of methods to apply energy efficiency through the application and via social network integration.
"It will work with social network integration and includes some games. Consumers will be able to monitor their electricity consumption as well as learn to use energy in a more efficient manner and share their experiences on social networks," he said.
According to PEAKapp's website, the app will offer individualized savings opportunities rather than waiting for consumers' requests for information on discounts. The app will include a tariff structure offering discounts during peak electricity production from renewable energy resources as a way to enable household consumers to reduce their personal carbon footprints.
PEAKapp will also launch the first dynamic pricing system for the household energy market, allowing electricity retailers to offer savings benefits of lower-priced electricity produced from renewables during peak times - one of the app's main objectives.
A promotional event at a conference in Vienna in November showcased the success of PEAKapp based on testing that was carried out by an Austrian firm in 1,000 households over the course of a year, Çeçen added.