Getting started with Furo
How Furo works: from the first data to live operation.
What you need before you start
The three mandatory items are enough for a complete analysis, everything else refines the result.
Mandatory
- Load profile (Lastgang) over a full year. The electricity consumption as a time series, in 15-minute or hourly values. Request it from the grid operator or electricity supplier; RLM customers usually find it in the customer portal. If no load profile is available, the annual consumption in kWh is enough — Furo then calculates with a standard load profile from the Load Library.
- Address of the site. It determines the grid fees (Netzentgelte) and the weather data for the PV yield.
- Electricity bill, net (excl. VAT). It supplies the working price (Arbeitspreis) in €/kWh and the demand charge (Leistungspreis) in €/kW/year. A current annual invoice as a PDF is enough; which line goes into which field is described under Electricity prices and grid fees.
Load profile format
| What | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Period | 365 to 366 days, no calendar year required |
| Resolution | 15-minute or hourly values (35,040 or 8,760 values) |
| File | CSV or Excel (.xlsx), column names freely chosen |
| Unit | kW or kWh per interval, please state which |
| Timestamp | e.g. 01.01.2026 00:15 or 2026-01-01T00:15, no Excel serial numbers |
| Values | numbers only, no negative values, no gaps |
All recognized timestamp formats, the daylight saving changeover and the messages during upload are described under Load profile.
If a PV system exists or is planned
- Peak power in kWp plus azimuth and tilt. For east-west systems, state both orientations.
- Year of commissioning. Determines which EEG (Renewable Energy Sources Act) rule applies at negative electricity prices.
- Feed-in tariff model: fixed feed-in tariff in €/kWh, sliding market premium with an applicable value (anzulegender Wert), or direct marketing (Direktvermarktung) without EEG. What distinguishes the models is described under PV & remuneration.
- For an existing system, additionally the feed-in or surplus profile: the part of the generation fed into the grid, at the same time resolution as the load profile.
Load profile and PV must match: either the total consumption (gross) without deducting the PV, or the grid import (net) together with the surplus profile. If a net load profile is supplied as total consumption, the PV counts twice and the calculated battery comes out far too small.
Optional, makes the result more accurate
- Grid connection capacity and whether an extension of the connection is planned.
- E-mobility at the site: number and type of vehicles, battery capacity, charging points with power, charging times. Which details each scenario needs is described under EV charging.
- Your own battery prices. Without your own values Furo calculates with €400/kWh capacity cost and €200/kW power cost, see Battery portfolio.
- Project term, discount rate and debt. The defaults are a 15-year term and a 2% discount rate per year, see Economics.
Only raw data available?
If the consumption data only exists as an invoice, an unsorted table or an image, you use the Data Agent to turn it into a clean, validated load profile.
The workflow
Furo accompanies you from planning through operation to marketing: