The state secretary visits the Federal Republic’s first communal building services with virtual balancing by decarbon1ze

Since 1 July 2025, a Berlin housing community has been sharing the electricity from its own roof for the first time with individual residual electricity supply from the grid for participating households

decarbon1ze operates the virtual balancing area for the efficient distribution and allocation of energy volumes

Virtual balancing provides a customised "operating system" for energy transition services in complex prosumer properties

The Berlin pilot project lays the foundation for the simplified implementation of bidirectional charging and energy sharing as well

Green Planet Energy and Octopus Energy are expanding their tenant electricity services to include the supply of residual electricity for communal building services customers in the virtual grid

09.07.2025

With communal building services, people in apartment buildings can also share the energy generated by their solar system. In contrast to tenant electricity, the free choice of supplier for additional quantities of electricity purchased from the distribution grid is retained. Complex energy-related data exchange processes currently mean that only a few communal building services projects have been realised nationwide. decarbon1ze and Stromnetz Berlin are not only realising Berlin's first communal building services together with a building community in Pankow. The pilot project also shows how the energy industry's complex coordination processes can be simplified. The particularly powerful digital infrastructure of the virtual balancing area adapts flexibly to the wishes of the participants.

"This project once again demonstrates the enormous potential for innovation in Berlin: a Berlin start-up and our state-owned Stromnetz GmbH are making solar power in apartment buildings flexibly usable for everyone under one roof - this is another important building block on Berlin's path to becoming a SolarCity and will serve as a model for many other building communities," emphasised Dr Severin Fischer, State Secretary in the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, during his visit to the site.

Share solar power, but remain individually flexible
"For my neighbours, the free choice of electricity supplier was a particularly important condition," says Markus Meyer, initiator of the project in the Pankow homeowners' association. "We needed a solution that matched our intuitive vision: Sharing solar power between us while remaining independent in terms of other energy services."

Virtual balancing offers customised solutions with a standardised interface to the grid
"With virtual balancing, we can realise precise energy quantity allocation even in complex prosumer properties, while at the same time implementing data transmission with standard market communication for grid operators and suppliers," explains Dr Ulrich Schuster, co-founder and co-CTO of decarbon1ze, adding: "Such simplifications can greatly accelerate the energy transition." The virtual meter will be the interface between the physical distribution grid and the virtual operating system, modelled on the Federal Network Agency's Electric Mobility Grid Access Rules (NZR-Emob). "The processes piloted here for feed-in in the virtual balancing area also show the potential for other energy transition services such as bidirectional charging or energy sharing," adds Dr Arwen Colell, decarbon1ze co-founder and CPO.

Digital metering services are a central component of energy transition solutions
"Stromnetz Berlin is a partner in the 'Masterplan Solarcity' network and is committed to customer-oriented and innovative processes relating to the decentralisation of the energy supply. With the roll-out of the smart metering systems, we are creating the digital infrastructure for the supply models of tomorrow," explains Stromnetz Berlin Managing Director Dr Erik Landeck. "This year, we are looking forward to implementing a number of projects such as this one relating to communal building services," emphasises Kerstin Niemeier, Head of Customer & Markets at Stromnetz Berlin, "thanks to our long-standing collaboration with partners such as decarbon1ze, we can develop new processes and IT solutions step by step and make them future-proof."

Attractive grid electricity offerings in apartment blocks with solar panels
Green Planet Energy and Octopus Energy are expanding their services for apartment blocks with solar systems by supplying communal building services participants. "Communal building services create transparency, enable a free choice of electricity provider and offer direct access to solar power from your own roof. We need such solutions now more than ever," says Carolin Dähling, Head of Policy and Communications at the cooperative green energy supplier Green Planet Energy. "Some of our employees took advantage of the free choice of supplier to switch directly to Octopus Energy," says Bastian Gierull, CEO of the pioneer for dynamic green energy services. Gierull continues "That shows: Dynamic tariff offers and flexible decision-making options are important to people."