Pumped storage power plants contribute to a secure power supply by generating electricity with the help of water when the sun and wind are not available. Depending on demand, however, not only can large amounts of energy be fed into the power grid, but surpluses can also be withdrawn to stabilize the power grid. In other words, pumped storage is currently the only large-scale storage solution for huge amounts of electricity.
Schluchseewerk AG is one of the largest operators of pumped storage power plants in Europe. With five pumped storage and run-of-river power plants in the southern Black Forest, the company makes an important contribution to security of supply and sustainable energy production. The power plants generate around 2.2 billion kilowatt hours of environmentally friendly electricity per year – equivalent to the annual consumption of 650,000 households. Since the first pumped storage plant was built almost 100 years ago, Schluchseewerk AG’s power plants have always been kept at the cutting edge of technology thanks to continuous innovations. As a result, they will continue to be able to fulfill their central role in the generation and storage of environmentally friendly electricity in the future.
In order to be able to provide or withdraw energy from the power grid, everything comes together at Schluchseewerk AG’s headquarters in Laufenburg in southern Baden. This is where the prerequisites for the smooth operation of the power plants are created. In order to further strengthen its own competitiveness in the demanding market environment of renewable energy supply, Schluchseewerk AG is currently in the process of modernizing its IT landscape. The company is in the middle of implementing SAP S/4HANA.
The partner of choice for the implementation is the Heilbronn-based SAP consulting company IBsolution. “Right from the start, IBsolution impressed us not only with its extensive technological know-how on ERP and SAP S/4HANA topics, but also with its in-depth understanding of our requirements and business processes,” says Ralf Brugger, SAP support manager at Schluchseewerk AG. Before the actual SAP S/4HANA project, which started in May 2022, both companies had already carried out an extensive preliminary project. It was successfully completed in April 2022 and created important prerequisites for the SAP S/4HANA implementation.
The content of the preliminary project included the development of a concept for the future connection of SAP Human Capital Management to SAP S/4HANA and a concept for archiving the previous ERP system SAP R/3, which has been in use at Schluchseewerk AG since 1997. In the meantime, however, it only meets the requirements of modern software for corporate management to a limited extent and no longer adequately maps the company’s core processes.
In addition, those responsible for the project at Schluchseewerk AG worked with IBsolution experts during the preliminary project to define requirement specifications and identify optimization potential in the business processes. A detailed training concept is designed to make users fit to work with SAP S/4HANA. “The preliminary project was an important milestone in paving the way for the actual SAP S/4HANA implementation and providing the right framework for a smooth implementation,” explains Ralf Brugger. “In view of the extensive preliminary work and our detailed action planning, I am confident that we will realize the SAP S/4HANA project on time and within budget.”
Parallel to the SAP S/4HANA project, Schluchseewerk AG is currently also implementing SAP Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). This results in certain dependencies that must be taken into account when implementing both projects. Therefore, IBsolution not only contributes the technological and process expertise for the SAP S/4HANA implementation, but also keeps an eye on the overall solution picture of the SAP HANA platform and the related coordination issues.
By integrating SAP S/4HANA and SAP EAM, the technical and commercial organizational units of Schluchseewerk AG are more closely linked. In order to start with a clean database in SAP S/4HANA, data cleansing is planned in the project. Any legacy data that has accumulated in the SAP R/3 system, which has grown over 25 years, will not be transferred. Among the most important goals that Schluchseewerk AG associates with the SAP S/4HANA implementation is the end-to-end mapping of the relevant business processes in SAP S/4HANA.
When migrating to SAP S/4HANA, Schluchseewerk AG opted for a selective migration in which the SAP S/4HANA system is set up anew and selected parts of the existing customizing and data are transferred. The go-live is planned for September 2023. The cooperation between Schluchseewerk AG and IBsolution will continue thereafter: To ensure smooth application operation, the hydropower plant operator will use IBsolution’s managed services in the future.
Photo: Schluchseewerk AG