An energy management system (EMS for short) is like a clever assistant for your home that keeps an eye on your electricity consumption. The system shows energy flows in the app, exposes hidden power guzzlers and helps you to utilise potential savings in a targeted manner. This protects the environment and your wallet. It becomes particularly smart in combination with a photovoltaic system - the energy management system then distributes the PV electricity optimally in the house instead of sending it unused into the grid.
An EMS is therefore there to make energy consumption smarter, cheaper and more sustainable. Let's take a closer look at its tasks.
Basically, the energy management system has two main tasks: monitoring your energy flows and intelligently controlling consumption in the smart home. The aim is obvious: to reduce energy consumption in order to save electricity costs and resources. Quite simple really - but we wanted to take a look at how the energy management system manages to uncover hidden savings potential and support you in achieving your energy goals.
The energy management system helps you not only to track electricity consumption in your home, but also to understand it. To do this, it records the consumption data for the whole house, individual rooms or specific appliances. You can use all Shelly products that have the suffix PM or EM in their name. The Shelly Plug and the Plug S Gen3 also offer power measurement.
The devices then automatically transfer the data to the Shelly Smart Control app. There you can see all consumption data in the history and can evaluate, compare or analyse it. This allows you to recognise greedy power guzzlers quickly and easily.
The energy management system is able to automatically reduce your electricity costs with the help of predefined scenes by optimising consumption in the smart home. On the one hand, this can mean that it disconnects the TV from the power supply when it's time for bed, or that it recognises when the photovoltaic system is producing a lot of electricity and has an energy surplus. This means you use more cheap PV electricity and draw less expensive energy from the public grid. Ergo: lower electricity costs, more independence and sustainability.
An EMS offers numerous advantages. For example, it increases the transparency of your consumption data. Perhaps you have often wondered why your electricity bill is so high or how much energy grandma's old freezer really consumes. With an energy management system, you can find the answer directly in the app. Thanks to the monitoring of your energy flows, you can sort out particularly energy-hungry appliances or utilise potential savings through smart operation.
Another plus point in favour of the energy management system is the convenience in the smart home. Saving electricity has never been more convenient. We no longer have to remember to switch off the multi-socket on the TV wall in the evening to avoid power consumption in standby mode. We simply switch on the Shelly Plug S Gen3 smart socket, programme it according to a schedule and see the savings in the app. Heating systems , underfloor heating or air conditioning systems can also be optimised - all you need is a smart actuator such as the Shelly 1PM Gen3 . Once programmed, the system ensures particularly efficient operation.
Optimising the use of solar power from your own system is also one of the benefits of the EMS. If the energy management system recognises that a lot of energy is being produced, it triggers the washing machine, for example, or charges the electric car so that the electricity can be used directly in the household. All that is needed is to define a corresponding scene in the app. In this way, the system increases self-consumption of solar power. This makes operating the system particularly worthwhile. After all, the feed-in tariff for PV electricity is less than 8 cents per kilowatt hour*, while purchasing a kilowatt hour costs around 40 cents. The EMS therefore lowers electricity costs and reduces CO2 emissions.
Shelly offers you various options. For example, you can install the Pro 3EM directly in your distribution box. This allows you to monitor your entire electricity consumption in your household and integrate a PV system, for example (more on this later). Alternatively, you can install the monitoring per room. In the app, you can then see which room has the highest electricity consumption. If you want to know even more precisely, you can also use Shelly to monitor the consumption of individual electrical appliances. For example, you can use a smart socket with power monitoring and easily get to the bottom of any high consumption.
The Shelly Pro 3EM is suitable for monitoring and optimising photovoltaic systems or other devices or circuits. The three-phase energy meter is then installed on the lines of the PV system, for example, and determines the amount of energy generated in real time. It communicates via WLAN, Bluetooth and LAN. This means you always know exactly how much electricity your system is currently producing. You can also see the proportion of self-consumption and the level of feed-in in the Shelly Smart Control app or the web interface. The consumption data is stored for up to 60 days at 1-minute intervals.
The Shelly Pro 3EM monitors the power of each individual phase. Deviations in voltage and current or a phase imbalance are recognised and reported immediately. In addition, the energy measurement accuracy of the device is precise at plus/minus 1 per cent.
The smart electricity meter can of course not only be used with PV systems. It determines the consumption of all devices and circuits - even individually. It can then be integrated into almost any smart home or energy management system thanks to LAN and WLAN, MQTT, WebSockets and UDP. The mTLS protocol ensures encrypted, secure communication.
You can use the Shelly Pro 3EM not only in households with a photovoltaic system, dynamic electricity tariffs are also optimised thanks to the EMS. The energy management system can even be used in companies. Let's take a look at some practical examples.
A household using a dynamic electricity tariff always wants to run controllable appliances at the most favourable times. The Shelly Pro 3EM helps by measuring consumption and receiving tariff information via the smart home system. If you are already familiar with the Shelly system, you can integrate the API from the electricity provider. It then provides the price information. Then all you have to do is set up the automations using a script. If cheap electricity is detected, the system then automatically starts large consumers such as the washing machine or the electric car charging station. If prices are high, unnecessary consumers are reduced.
The Shelly Pro 3EM also provides detailed consumption analyses in companies. For example, the device monitors the consumption of machines and recognises peak loads or inefficient consumers. Thanks to MODBUS RTU/TCP, the clever device can be integrated into existing industrial and building automation systems. This allows machines to be intelligently controlled, potential savings to be realised and peak loads to be avoided in order to reduce electricity costs. In this way, companies not only achieve their energy targets, but also improve their competitiveness.
If you use a PV system, you can use the Shelly Pro 3EM to identify a surplus of solar energy. If the system is producing more electricity than is needed in the household, the smart system recognises the surplus and can use the energy to operate the heating element in the boiler, for example. Hot water is then primarily heated using solar power and the need for energy from the public grid is greatly reduced.
A household using a dynamic electricity tariff always wants to run controllable appliances at the most favourable times. The Shelly Pro 3EM helps by measuring consumption and receiving tariff information via the smart home system. If you are already familiar with the Shelly system, you can integrate the API from the electricity provider. It then provides the price information. Then all you have to do is set up the automations using a script. If cheap electricity is detected, the system then automatically starts large consumers such as the washing machine or the electric car charging station. If prices are high, unnecessary consumers are reduced.
The Shelly Pro 3EM also provides detailed consumption analyses in companies. For example, the device monitors the consumption of machines and recognises peak loads or inefficient consumers. Thanks to MODBUS RTU/TCP, the clever device can be integrated into existing industrial and building automation systems. This allows machines to be intelligently controlled, potential savings to be realised and peak loads to be avoided in order to reduce electricity costs. In this way, companies not only achieve their energy targets, but also improve their competitiveness.
If you use a PV system, you can use the Shelly Pro 3EM to identify a surplus of solar energy. If the system is producing more electricity than is needed in the household, the smart system recognises the surplus and can use the energy to operate the heating element in the boiler, for example. Hot water is then primarily heated using solar power and the need for energy from the public grid is greatly reduced.
Let's stick with the example of PV surplus utilisation and take a look at how much money can be saved by using an energy management system with Shelly Pro 3EM .
Let's assume in our calculation that the integration of an EMS increases the self-consumption rate of PV electricity by 20 per cent. Not an unrealistic figure, as the professionals confirm.** For a system with 9 kWp, that would be a whopping 1,800 kWh per year.
In January 2025, the kWh price for electricity from the public grid was 35.9 cents.*** If we assume that we have saved 1,800 kWh of electricity from the public grid with the EMS,the savings in electricity costs amount to an impressive EUR 646.20 per year.
As the Federal Ministry of Finance reports, there is a tax incentive for the installation of digital systems to optimise energy operation and consumption - i.e. energy management systems.**** Anyone who renovates their home to make it more energy efficient can deduct 20 per cent of the costs from their tax bill - spread over three years. The maximum tax saving per residential property is 40,000 euros.
When choosing an EMS, make sure that the system is compatible with your devices (PV system, wallbox, etc.) and can be easily integrated. An appconnectionis also importanttomany.
An intelligent EMS optimises electricity consumption, can be integrated into the smart home, maximises PV self-consumption and reduces energy costs through load management and dynamic tariffs.
The Shelly Pro 3EM is installed in the main distribution board. Installation should always be carried out by a specialist. The connection to the app is then established via WLAN.
The system can cost between a few hundred and a thousand euros - depending on the scope, function, etc. The Shelly Pro 3EM starts at 142.68 euros. You should calculate a few hundred euros for the installation.
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