Questions we get asked

Peak shaving lowers the highest quarter-hour of consumption in the billing year, because that single quarter-hour sets the capacity charge (Leistungspreis) on a German industrial electricity bill. The battery discharges during the peak and recharges once it has passed. The metered peak of the site drops, while the energy the site consumes stays the same. How well this works depends on how sharp and how predictable your peaks are, and much less on your total electricity use.

The systems we advise on range from 50 kWh to the low megawatt-hour range. The size follows the shape of the load profile, which is the record of consumption in quarter-hour steps, and not the annual consumption. A site with short, sharp peaks needs less storage than its electricity bill suggests. Without a quarter-hourly load profile, any sizing is a guess.

ZNX Energy designs storage systems between 50 kWh and the low megawatt-hour range. This is the range for German Mittelstand and commercial sites, well below utility-scale plants. Each system is sized on the quarter-hourly load profile of its own site, so that the design matches the peaks this site actually produces.

No. A battery storage system works on its own at the grid connection, without any solar generation. Peak shaving only needs the battery, the load profile of the site and the grid tariff structure. Where a site also has solar PV, the same battery can raise self-consumption as a second use case.

Yes, in many cases the same battery capacity can do both. A battery sized to cut the peak load of a site can also hold a reserve that bridges short outages, so the two functions are sized together. Equator Solar Systems Ltd, the East African company that the managing directors of ZNX Energy also lead, has used this dual function at hospital sites in Uganda.

Storage works best on sharp, repeating and predictable peaks, as they occur in electroplating, heat treatment and foundries. Sites with continuous loads and high thermal mass, such as cold storage and dairy processing, can also shift load without risking the process, although the pattern differs from a classic peak-shaving case. Storage usually does not make sense on a flat load profile with little variation.

We need the quarter-hourly metered consumption data of your site, usually for twelve months, which you can get from your grid operator or metering service provider. We also need your current tariff structure and the details of your grid connection. An existing energy audit under the EDL-G or an energy management system speeds up the analysis. We can start with three months of data, but a full year shows the seasonal peaks more reliably.

No. ZNX Energy has no own installation team. Installation is carried out by vetted installation partners under our supervision. As independent advisor we design and specify the system, but we do not supply or install hardware. As turnkey partner we deliver the system through the same vetted partners under one contract and remain responsible for the result.

As independent advisor we offer load-profile analysis, feasibility studies, specification and tendering, owner’s engineering, quote reviews, acceptance testing and energy audits for the EDL-G and EnEfG duties, each priced on its own scope. As turnkey partner we deliver the system through vetted installation partners under one fixed-price contract. We take only one of the two roles on a given project, never both.

No. ZNX Energy is manufacturer-independent and sizes every system on the load profile of the client instead of a vendor’s standard configuration. In practice this can mean that we recommend a smaller battery than an installer tied to one manufacturer would quote, because the data decides the size and a sales target does not.

ZNX Energy focuses on German industrial and commercial sites with a quarter-hourly metered grid connection. It works in five sectors: metalworking and machinery, energy-intensive processes such as electroplating and heat treatment, plastics and injection moulding, food processing, and cold chain and logistics. System sizes range from 50 kWh to the low megawatt-hour range.

On every project we take one of two roles, never both. As independent advisor we are paid a fee, earn nothing on hardware and take no commission from manufacturers or installers. As turnkey partner we deliver the system through vetted installation partners under one contract. If we wrote the specification or evaluate the bids, we do not bid.

No. As independent advisor we are paid a fee for the work itself and take no commission from any manufacturer or installer. That is also why we do not bid on a project where we wrote the specification or evaluated the offers.

Yes. A quote review puts the offers you already hold on one manufacturer-neutral standard, so that you can compare them. It checks scope, sizing and technical assumptions as well as price. The quote review is one of our fixed-price advisory services, and we do not need to have written the original specification.

Yes, under conditions. Under §118(6) EnWG, storage commissioned by 4 August 2029 is exempt from grid fees for twenty years on the energy drawn for storage, provided it is fed back into the same grid it was drawn from. The Bundesnetzagentur, the federal grid regulator, reaffirmed the exemption in its press release of 27 May 2026 on the AgNes grid-fee reform. The deadline applies to commissioning and not to the order date, so a project has to plan for delivery and installation time.

The energy audit duty for companies that are not SMEs comes from §8 EDL-G, the Energy Services Act, regardless of consumption. Above 2.5 GWh a year, §9 EnEfG, the Energy Efficiency Act, also requires published implementation plans. Above 7.5 GWh, §8 EnEfG requires a full energy or environmental management system. ZNX Energy carries out these audits manufacturer-neutral. The quarter-hourly load-profile data from an audit is the same data that a storage sizing is built on, so a site that must audit its energy use already holds this data.

Load-profile analysis, feasibility studies, quote reviews and acceptance tests are offered at a fixed price agreed on the scope. Owner’s engineering is billed by day rate or as a fixed fee. Turnkey delivery is a fixed-price contract.

Feasibility studies and load-profile analyses follow the method of DIN EN 16247-1 and ISO 50002. Energy audits under the EDL-G follow the same standards. The data and the method therefore carry over when the obligation of a site changes from the four-yearly energy audit to an energy management system.

They are two separate companies for two markets, led by the same two people. Equator Solar Systems Ltd has been building solar and storage in Uganda since 2011 and has installed 4,074 kWp of PV and 3,923 kWh of storage. ZNX Energy GmbH is the German company, founded in 2026 in Ahnatal near Kassel. Every project reference on this site was delivered by Equator Solar Systems, and is labelled as such.

ZNX stands for Zero Emission, Net Result and X-Sector. The name describes the idea behind the company, which treats lower emissions and financial return as one result and works across industrial sectors instead of in one sector only.

ZNX Energy GmbH is registered at Am Kammerberg 102, 34292 Ahnatal, near Kassel in Germany, under HRB 20762 at the Amtsgericht Kassel. The company’s articles of association were notarised on 22 April 2026 and the company was entered in the commercial register on 13 July 2026. Share capital is EUR 25,000.

ZNX Energy has four shareholders, each holding 25 percent: NEXIRA GmbH, represented by Franz Sistemich, Fabian Dold, Mira Kowalski and Steffen Waßler. Fabian Dold and Mira Kowalski are the managing directors (Geschäftsführer), each with sole power of representation. The same two lead Equator Solar Systems Ltd in Uganda, which is where the company’s engineering background comes from.

You can reach ZNX Energy by email at info@znx-energy.com or through the contact form on this site. The registered office is Am Kammerberg 102, 34292 Ahnatal, Germany.

Not yet. ZNX Energy GmbH was founded in 2026, so it has no completed German project of its own. The references shown on this site are projects of Equator Solar Systems Ltd in East Africa, a company led by the same two managing directors, and every one is labelled as such.