The energy system is undergoing one of the most significant transformations in its history. As renewables, electric vehicles, and decentralized assets spread across the grid, the traditional centralized model of electricity supply is evolving into a dynamic ecosystem of Distributed Energy Resources (DER).
For utilities, this shift means moving beyond simply delivering power to orchestrating millions of distributed assets and enabling new customer energy services.
Across Europe and beyond, utilities are facing the same strategic challenge: how to integrate distributed energy assets into existing operations while building scalable business models around them.
DERs introduce a new level of operational and digital complexity. Utilities must coordinate a rapidly growing ecosystem that includes:
To make distributed energy truly operational at scale, utilities need solutions connecting customer channels, metering infrastructure, distributed assets, and market signals into one integrated environment.
SAP clearly recognizes this shift and plays a key role in supporting utilities across core processes such as asset management, finance, customer management, and billing.
To support the next phase of the energy transition, SAP has built an ecosystem of technology partners contributing specialized capabilities to the emerging Distributed Energy Resources platform.
Among those partners is exnaton.
Enabling this new energy landscape requires more than infrastructure. It requires digital platforms capable of integrating data, coordinating assets, and connecting customers, devices, and markets in real time.
This is where the combination of SAP’s enterprise backbone and exnaton’s intelligence platform for new energy comes into play. exnaton provides a digital platform designed specifically to help utilities build, launch, and operate end-to-end decentralized energy solutions at scale.
The platform enables utilities to orchestrate DER-based business models such as:
exnaton extends existing SAP environments to enable end-to-end digital processes and provide an integrated consumer interface, including notifications, analytics and reports for consumers.
Utilities can continue relying on SAP for their core systems of record while using exnaton to manage customer interaction, real-time data processing,and distributed energy services.
To showcase how this transformation works in practice, exnaton will participate as a partner in the DER platform at the SAP for Energy & Utilities Conference 2026, taking place April 21–23 in Toulouse, France.
The annual conference brings together global energy leaders, technology partners, and SAP experts to explore how the sector is evolving – from digital transformation and AI to sustainability, automation, and customer experience.
The event provides a unique opportunity for utilities to connect with peers, learn from real-world implementations, and explore how SAP ecosystems are enabling the next phase of the energy transition.
A highlight of the event will be a customer session presented by Kelag, one of Austria’s leading energy companies and an exnaton and SAP customer.
In their session “From Niche to Normal: Scaling Energy Sharing in Austria’s SAP Landscape” Kelag experts will share practical lessons from scaling energy sharing with exnaton integrated in their SAP landscape — from product design and pricing to system architecture and customer operations.
Austria has become Europe’s leading market for energy communities, with more than 5,000 active communities already in operation. In this session Kelag will explore how utilities can:
Most importantly, the presentation will highlight real-world lessons learned from implementing future-proof energy products engaging prosumersat scale.
The session will be delivered by Stefan Wakonig, Product Owner at Kelag and an expert in business model development for decentralized energy solutions, and Martina Bieche, SAP Solution Architect at Kelag.
Register now for the SAP for Energy & Utilities Conference!
