Kwick Chooses Hive Power to Manage Energy Communities

Kwick, a service company for the supply of electricity in Switzerland, has chosen Hive Power, a leading company in innovative solutions for smart grids, as its technology partner for the Kwick Community service dedicated to the management of renewable energy communities (a.k.a. Community Solar in some markets).

At the heart of Kwick’s renewable energy community management solution is Hive Power’s Flexo Community Manager platform, designed for managing energy communities and optimising assets within homes, the community, or the grid. This is achieved by identifying peak demand hours and either reducing consumption or utilising stored renewable energy. Thanks to Hive Power's technology, Kwick customers can be relieved of all burdens related to consumption measurement, cost allocation, and billing for individual community users.

Renewable energy communities consist of a group of tenants or property owners who draw power from a shared photovoltaic system, connecting to the local distribution company through a single supply point. This is a form of physical energy community unique to Switzerland, acting as a single large end customer towards the energy service provider and independently handling internal measurements among participants.

“The collaboration between Hive Power and Kwick started after a testing phase with local suppliers in June 2023 and is already receiving positive feedback in Switzerland,” explained Davide Rivola, COO and co-founder of Hive Power. “Our Flexo platform offers various opportunities in terms of energy management and, notably, the self-consumption of local solar energy for users, with an estimated average self-consumption rate of 30%.”

“Renewable energy communities are one of the tools promoted by the Swiss Confederation to increase the share of renewable energy produced and consumed in Switzerland,” explained Andrea Pedroni of Kwick SA. “Thanks to our collaboration with Hive Power, we can offer an innovative service that guarantees optimised energy management. In just a few months, over 100 users have decided to join the service as prosumers, and we expect this number to increase significantly in the next few years.”