03.2Success story · Energy-Tech
enercity
An EMS product that serves three workplaces.
PULS is energy management as a utility's own product. Customers, trade partners and service technicians work on the same asset data — with different tasks and different permissions. Lipsia Digital designed and delivered the product.
Applications
3
Customer app, partner portal and service application on one platform.
Application views are adaptations in the Lipsia design system · illustrative values
01About the project
A utility builds a product.
enercity did not want to buy energy management in, but to offer it as an own digital product. An EMS for residential customers is only the visible half: without partner and service processes a customer app stays a product without an operating model.
We designed and delivered PULS with the client's departments — the EMS core with asset states and rules, the portal for trade partners in sales and installation, and the application for the service teams who commission assets and handle faults.
02The task
Three roles, one data base.
The real question was not how many interfaces are needed, but how much process belongs in the software. Every role sees the same asset — with different tasks, different permissions and different context.
- Connect assets and device classes reliably
- Give customers a product that needs no training
- Make trade partners operational in sales and installation
- Put remote diagnosis before the site visit
- Bind permissions to roles, not to applications
03System landscape
Asset, gateway, platform, applications, market.
PULS sits between the assets in the house and the utility's system landscape. Downwards the platform speaks device protocols, upwards it serves three applications and the adjacent systems. A simplified, publishable view.
- 01 AssetsPV system · Storage · Wallbox · Heat pump
- 02 ConnectivityReadings · States · MQTT
- 03 PlatformIoT cloud · EMS & rules · Optimisation & control
- 04 ApplicationsCustomer app · Partner portal · Field service app
- 05 Market & third-partyDynamic tariffs · direct marketing · ERP · CRM · billing
- 06 Development perspectiveIn development: VPP · Flexibility · Data-based optimisation
04Roles
One system, three workplaces.
The trade partner needs the list of assets they look after. Service needs the fault with its history. The customer needs the state of their system and a way to ask for help. The same data, three cuts — and one permission model above them.
Trade partner
Assets in view
Assets served, commissioning and open tasks in one view.
Data
1
One asset, one record — no reconciliation between portals.
Permissions belong to the role
Who may see, change or commission an asset is decided by the role model — described once, valid in all three applications. New tasks are configured, not re-coded.
Permissions belong to the role, not to the application.
Model
One source
Roles and permissions live in the platform, not in each interface.
For customers it stays an app
Self-supply, operating state, monthly balance — and a route to service that carries the asset data with it. Customers should understand their system, not a role model.
Service route
With context
The request already carries asset and device data.
05Commissioning
The start decides the operation.
An asset commissioned badly produces faults for years. That is why commissioning in PULS is not a form at the end but a process with states: partner, service and customer see the same progress and the same open points.
Service
Remote first
Reachability, backfilled readings and controller response — before the visit.
Escalation
3
Stages from inbox through remote diagnosis to the site visit.
A checklist instead of phone calls
Created, devices detected, metering point linked, controller active, customer approval: progress is a record, not a chain of calls. What is missing appears as an open point in the application where it gets solved.
Partner, service and customer see the same record of progress.
Open point
Meter data
No metering point, no operation — the notice reaches the partner, not the customer.
Faults arrive with a history
A request from the app contains the asset, the device and the last readings. Service sees the history, not just "it doesn't work" — and answers part of the cases without driving out.
History
4
Steps from request to closure, visible to everyone involved.
06Devices
Heat pump, PV, storage, wallbox.
Every device class brings its own protocol and its own failures. The platform normalises them into one state model — only then does a new manufacturer generation stay a configuration instead of becoming a new project.
Illustrative asset values in the application pattern · no client data
One state model for all classes
State, reading, connection quality and backfill after an outage are part of the domain — not an edge case. All three applications work on this model.
Illustrative counts — not the client's asset numbers.
Protocols
EEBUS · SunSpec · OCPP
Different protocols, one state model in the platform.
07Technical facts
What this system is made of.
Scope details from our own project communication.
- Platform
- EMS core with rules and asset states
- Applications
- Customer app · partner portal · service application
- Role model
- Roles and permissions across all applications
- Device classes
- Heat pump · PV · storage · wallbox · metering point
- Processes
- Commissioning, fault handling, customer care
- Integration
- The utility's system landscape
- Lipsia's role
- Concept · delivery
08Outcome
A product with an operating model.
PULS is delivered as a utility's own digital EMS product — with a partner portal and a service application, and therefore with the roles that actually exist in sales and service. The next step is deeper market functionality: dynamic tariffs and price-based control inside the utility's product context.
Confirmed
- A digital EMS product for a utility
- Trade partner portal and service application
- Role and permission model across all applications
- Concept and delivery by Lipsia Digital
//Next story
Factoring platform
An outdated core system carried the factoring business. Replaced by a multi-tenant platform — during live operation.
//Read on
AI-generated
Let's talk about your project.
A free orientation call: your situation, your plans and mutual fit clarified. You decide on the next step afterwards.