WonenBreburg and MeterInsight

WonenBreburg is one of the largest housing associations in the province of Brabant, with over 27,000 homes in Tilburg and Breda. Every day, the organization works to provide affordable and comfortable housing for people with a limited income. Sustainability plays a key role in this mission. WonenBreburg aims to be fully gas-free by 2050 and is taking step-by-step measures to make its housing portfolio more sustainable.

Challenge: More insight to prevent unnecessary energy consumption

To realize its ambition of a gas-free housing portfolio, WonenBreburg needs insight into the energy consumption of its properties. Not only at individual dwelling level, but especially into the performance of collective installations such as block heating systems and gas boilers. Within WonenBreburg, there had long been questions about whether energy consumption matched actual usage and residents’ demand. To be able to test this properly and make targeted adjustments, more detailed insights were required.

Energy management specialist Koen Seghers explains:

“We simply didn’t have enough detailed data. For many connections, we only saw monthly meter readings, and we received no alerts when an installation was performing abnormally. While that’s exactly where we expected the greatest savings opportunities”

Koen Seghers – Specialist Energy management at WonenBreburg

The challenges for WonenBreburg were threefold:

• Insufficient high-frequency data for smaller connections.
• No alerts for abnormal consumption.
• No structural comparison between sites to prioritise deviations

With thousands of residents depending on collective systems, this level of insight is crucial. Small deviations in consumption can accumulate into significant costs. Every kilowatt-hour that is unnecessarily used results in higher housing costs for people who can often least afford it. “That directly touches on our mission as a housing association,” says Koen.

The solution: More insight into the energy consumption of collective installations with MeterInsight

After comparing several providers, WonenBreburg chose MeterInsight. Not only because of its user-friendliness, but also due to a positive previous collaboration and the continuous development of the platform.

“I was already familiar with the platform and knew how quickly the team responds. You continue to develop the platform, which makes it future-proof. Moreover, the implementation was arranged quickly and proved to be significantly more cost-effective than the alternatives. Other energy management platforms, for example, offer many more settings to adjust, but MeterInsight is clearer and more intuitive. All the core functionalities we need are included.” 

With MeterInsight, WonenBreburg now has access to high-frequency detailed data, automatic alerts for abnormal energy consumption, and the ability to compare complexes with one another. In addition, the platform supports multisite reporting and analysis tools for in-depth analysis and reporting for internal use or communication with stakeholders. This provides a solid foundation for gaining structural insight into the performance of collective installations.

Faster detection and targeted intervention

One of the key advantages is the ability to identify deviations at an early stage. Koen shares a concrete example:

“At one complex, we suddenly noticed a sharp increase in electricity consumption. Thanks to the detailed measurement data, we discovered that a heater in the elevator shaft had been unintentionally left on for a long time. Without this monitoring, it would only have become visible much later.”

Thanks to automated alerts, deviations are detected immediately instead of only becoming apparent afterwards through the final energy bill.

Benchmarking for smart prioritization

WonenBreburg uses benchmarks such as kWh per square meter or cubic meters of gas per dwelling to determine which complexes require attention first.

“Benchmarking is extremely helpful in setting priorities. You can see at a glance which complexes are performing abnormally.”

The Multisite Report also provides an automatic overview of increases, decreases, and notable patterns. This makes it easier to plan maintenance, optimization, and replacement activities in a targeted and efficient way.

From insight to structural energy management

Using daily graphs, filters, and trend analyses, WonenBreburg investigates the causes of deviations and assesses which measures are effective. In many cases, boiler settings, hot water systems, or control mechanisms turn out not to be optimal.

“Simply by better adjusting installations, you can sometimes achieve significant savings without major structural interventions. And we are only just getting started”

After interventions are implemented, energy consumption continues to be monitored to assess whether the intended savings are actually being achieved.

Impact: lower housing costs and faster sustainability progress

For WonenBreburg, the impact of structural energy management goes beyond technical optimization alone. By preventing unnecessary energy consumption, housing costs can be kept under control for tenants who often have limited financial flexibility.

“Every saving directly affects housing costs. That is an important principle for us,” says Koen. “Many tenants do not actively think about energy use. That is precisely why it is our responsibility to prevent waste.”

In addition, the available measurement data supports WonenBreburg in making well-founded decisions for the further sustainability of its housing portfolio. The insights help determine priorities: which installations require attention first and which complexes are suitable for next steps toward gas-free housing.

The future: step by step towards 2050 through deeper insight

WonenBreburg views energy management as a long-term, continuous development. With 2050 in mind, insights into energy consumption will be expanded step by step. The housing association aims to gain better insight into the performance of boilers and heat pumps and is exploring integrations with building management systems to include process data such as supply and return temperatures. In addition, simulating and verifying energy invoices plays an important role in better understanding energy costs, as does optimizing grid costs by critically assessing whether contracted capacity and connections still match actual usage.

According to Koen, this ongoing development is essential: