This kind of research and testing helps business units develop and fine-tune their commercial offerings. We want to make sure that customers get the best service in this rapidly changing market.
The Future Collectivities & Homes Lab is the one-stop shop specialized in testing domestic appliances and energy management solutions.
Their goal: evaluate the technical and functional quality of these appliances and solutions. This also includes testing newly designed products for debugging and troubleshooting purposes, to ensure that they will be suitable for the local context and achieve satisfactory market penetration. Tests are carried out in the HomeLab as well as in a real context. Beyond the testing activity, recommendations are made to the ENGIE BUs on the commercial viability and potential risks of the devices.
As part of the rapid ramping-up of electric mobility in Belgium, ENGIE is also looking to make home energy management systems available to help electric vehicle owners reduce their energy bills by optimizing charging periods.
The Lab actively supported product development, from the definition of needs to CE certification, supporting the roll-out, and training installers. Appropriate products were selected on the market and tested in the HomeLab.
A HEMS (Home Energy Management System) is a cornerstone product for residential customers seeking a solution to optimize the charging of their electrical car and to increase the usage of solar production from their own PV installation. The solution proposed to ENGIE customers allows EVs to be charged at optimal power, based on a self-learning algorithm developed in house that continuously learns the customer’s charging habits and consumption profile and defines a realistic EV peak offtake to avoid unnecessary peak consumption. In this way, the impact of the capacity tariff (applicable in Flanders) on the customer's energy invoice can be reduced without impacting ease of use.
Cherry on the cake, in 2023 Optimize won the “ENGIE Employees’ Choice Award”, selected by ENGIE’s employees. A clear achievement of a fruitful collaboration between ENGIE Marketing & Sales Belgium and Laborelec.
Lab manager Cathy Crunelle outlines the benefits for ENGIE: “This kind of research and testing helps business units develop and fine-tune their commercial offerings. We want to make sure that customers get the best service in this rapidly changing market.”
