Award honours the impact of NExT Factory’s AI-backed energy management system on smarter factory operations
Schaltbau, a global leader in direct current (DC) technology, has received the FREDDIE AI Industrial Award in the ‘Sustainability’ category for the AI-based energy management system at the NExT Factory, the world’s first DC factory in Velden, Germany.
The award recognises how the system intelligently connects a wide range of energy sources, consumers, and storage systems, setting new benchmarks in industrial energy supply performance and sustainability.
“AI, sustainability and economic impact go hand in hand. Because no suitable energy management system for DC fed industrial power supplies existed, we developed one ourselves, just as we did when creating the world’s first DC factory,” said Helmut Pusch, CEO of Schaltbau GmbH Group.
“This double pioneering spirit defines who we are: when solutions don’t exist, we create them. And then we share them. Our NExT Factory and its AI-driven EMS form a blueprint for the All Electric Society, helping drive the global transition toward smarter, cleaner, and more resilient industrial power systems.”
The idea for an AI-driven energy management originated during Schaltbau’s pioneering project to build the world’s first DC factory. With no existing solution available, the company built its own, extending its innovation from factory concept to the intelligent systems that power it. By directly coupling energy generation from a rooftop photovoltaic system, storage, and consumption on a DC microgrid, conversion losses are minimized, significantly increasing overall system efficiency and reducing costs.
Managing such a system, however, is highly complex and cannot be handled with static, rule-based algorithms. Thousands of data points must be processed every second — from power flows and production schedules to weather forecasts, load shifting to sunny periods, and variable electricity tariffs.
The NExT Factory’s EMS, supporting both DC and AC networks, uses artificial intelligence to dynamically learn, recognize patterns, forecast future power consumption, and enable predictive, efficient control of the entire DC energy supply network. The scalable system was developed in-house with a cloud-based backend and a local edge application, and it received funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space under the SynErgie3 project.
The FREDDIE Industrial AI Award, initiated by publish-industry and UnternehmerTUM, recognises outstanding applications of artificial intelligence in manufacturing and industrial environments. It honors projects that demonstrate how AI can transform industrial processes, enhance efficiency, and deliver measurable value. Award-winning solutions typically stand out for their technical excellence, industrial relevance, scalability, degree of innovation, business impact, and future potential.
With both factory concept and the in-house AI-based EMS, Schaltbau continues to share insights and best practices with partners and the wider industry – because advancing DC technology is a collective mission toward a more sustainable future.
To find out more information, visit https://schaltbau.com/en/
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