SAP at Charge Energy Branding in Iceland – a Memorable Experience

For the first time, the SAP for Utilities team was participating in the Charge Energy Branding Conference in the capital of Iceland which is mainly supplied by geothermal energy. Not only the place in a country, characterized by volcanoes, geysers, thermal springs and lava springs, was special, also the conference attendees were unlike to any other conference the Utilities team attended before. It was a brilliant mix of representatives from politics, research, and energy business and people who deal with the energy transition from around the world.

Fridrik Larsen the father of this event, calls himself a “Brand Devil” and with Charge has created a format that simply defies conventional logic.

What Was the Charge Energy Branding Event About?

The event was branding and the importance of the external perception of an energy company in the world and the possibilities to change this perception. Additionally, it was about why a customer should choose a certain energy company X to transform into a prosumer / flexumer. It was also about the possibilities to quickly implement the energy transition against the background of the current situation.

Daniela Sellmann spoke in her keynote about SAP’s priorities and product strategy, what makes customers choose a utility and how SAP support customers with innovations, such as the SAP E-Mobility solution, to stay competitive.

Images: Charge

Charge and The Brand Project have developed a brandcouch concept to film inspiring leaders talking about how they manage their brands, what challenges and opportunities they see going forward, and how the world looks from their side of the market. Daniela Sellmann was invited to take a seat at the couch and spoke about her role, SAP’s view on strategic priorities for the utilities industry, and the importance of energy partnerships to master the energy transition jointly. This ranges from newly defined partnerships between utilities and their end-customers turning them into flexumers, from partnerships between utilities and cross-industry companies such as automotive, retail, and public sector. 

Image: Charge

Joerg Ferchow was part of the panel discussion on new business models and services for the energy transition. E-Mobility is one part of this transition for which SAP has a solution in place, called SAP E-Mobility. Besides charging infrastructure, there are other small scale distributed energy devices that need to be operated on behalf of the end-consumer: PV systems, stationary storage solutions, or heat pumps. Utilities will need an end-to-end solution to operate those customers. But before a customer can become a prosumer or even a flexumer, he or she must be developed step by step. This requires customized, data-based offers that provide the customer with real added value on the way to greater self-sufficiency. On the other hand, a reliable partner is needed to take care of the operational side of the entire system.

Image: Charge

What Happened at the SAP Booth?

At our booth, Tomasz Jachyra and Joerg discussed and showcased how a customer’s journey from an energy consumer to energy prosumer could look like. SAP could hear and learn from many experts from different countries and industries (i.e.from OEMs for energy batteries, EV chargers, from energy retailers, from the US, Australia, Iceland) about challenges they face trying to establish platforms enabling efficient intercompany collaborative services

Especially impressive was an excursion to the world’s largest geothermal power plant. This technology still has a lot of untapped potential around the world. the company Orka náttúrunnar uses this know-how to export it to interested countries.

At least as impressive was a presentation by the company carbfix, whose goal is to turn CO2 into stone. With this technology, it is possible to store all CO2 gases ever produced in the earth. Work is currently underway to scale up this technology.

It was a great experience for our team to be there in Reykjavik. If you want to read more about charge, just visit the Charge website. By the way, you can find even more pictures here.