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Writer's pictureMirka Karra

This is how E.ON Sweden’s Elna helped their customers reduce their energy consumption by 63% more than their regular customers did

You can find the original article here.


A man check energy insights on his utility app

In the shadow of the Gen2 smart meter rollout in Sweden, E.ON Sweden decided to seize the moment by offering Swedish households a way to manage and reduce their energy usage at home. They introduced E.ON Elna™ service, complemented by the innovative Elna dongle. E.ON Elna™ is a smart service in the E.ON app that analyzes the household's energy consumption. E.ON Elna™ customers can take control of their consumption and make conscious choices that help them save energy and reduce their energy costs. The service comes with a hardware dongle that is installed in the smart meter and connects it to the app; then, it’s up and running and it can easily follow the individual household consumption both in real-time, over time (weekly, monthly, yearly), and on appliance level – smart and easy. Elna is based on AI technology, where the software is constantly learning more about the household's energy consumption. The longer the users have the service installed, the more it will be able to help them reduce their energy consumption and costs. NET2GRID is the EnergyAI provider of both the AI-powered energy insights and disaggregation services, as well as the Elna hardware.


Savings and energy efficiency with energy insights


E.ON Elna is not just smart - it’s effective. A study conducted by E.ON Sweden, from December 2022 to February 2023, showed that homes with Elna installed cut their energy usage by 22%, a stark contrast to the 13.5% of energy reduction in homes without it. So Elna users enjoyed an 8.5% additional energy saving, which is an impressive 63% of greater efficiency in energy usage compared to non-Elna users. The tangible benefits extend to financial savings, with the average Elna customer saving approximately SEK 3,400 (289 EUR) annually and up to SEK 5,000 (425 EUR) for homes with direct electric heating. These figures highlight the solid performance of NET2GRID’s services coupled with the innovative Elna dongle.


Innovative marketing by E.ON Sweden


E.ON Sweden’s marketing approach for Elna was as creative as it was impactful. Capitalizing on the growing public interest in energy savings, E.ON launched a reality series featuring the Jarnys, an ordinary Swedish family using Elna, navigating their way to a more sustainable lifestyle kilowatt by kilowatt. This series was not only educational but also entertaining, achieving a 76% view rate and a 36% completion rate for episodes lasting over six minutes. The campaign was successful and received a gold award at the Nordic YouTube Works Awards, significantly enhancing customer engagement and product visibility.


The future looks bright


The AI-driven capabilities of E.ON Elna™, powered by NET2GRID EnergyAI, machine learning and data science capabilities, are continuously improving, promising even greater financial savings and energy efficiency with energy insights for household users. As the software learns more about individual household consumption patterns, its ability to assist in reducing energy usage and costs enhances. This is a unique capability of NET2GRID EnergyAI which is continuously trained against ground truth appliance consumption data and one of the biggest set of appliance events available. In parallel, E.ON is committed to further developing the service, with new features and products that promise to elevate the user experience and environmental impact.


One of the latest features, aiming at the energy-savvy, is the Smart Charging capability, now available with E.ON Elna. For EV owners, smart charging is a game-changer: it encourages users to charge their electric vehicles during the off-peak electricity hours of the day. Through the app, users can set a charging schedule to make sure their car is fully charged exactly when they need it, optimizing energy use and cost efficiency in one go.


Quote


‘’Ordering Elna is something that all our household customers should consider. The service increases the understanding and awareness of the home's energy use in a way that benefits their wallet and makes it easier to live a little more sustainably. In addition, it is very easy to install and use."

- Johan, Project Manager and Growth Lead at E.ON Sweden (direct translation from Swedish)

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