Riddle&Code builds KERN, a platform that utilities and aggregators use to connect, dispatch and earn money from distributed energy assets at scale. Those assets are the small, scattered devices that sit behind customer meters: solar PV, home batteries, heat pumps, EV chargers and commercial storage.
The problem is scale. Each device on its own is too small to matter to a grid or a market, and steering thousands of them by hand is not practical. Riddle&Code turns them into flexibility that a partner can call on.
At A Glance
| Vendor | Riddle&Code |
|---|---|
| Category | Distributed energy management platform |
| Deployment | Behind the meter platform with API, edge hardware and wireless connectivity |
| Managed assets | PV, home storage, heat pumps, EV chargers, commercial BESS, CHP, controllable loads |
| Market classification | Identity Verification |
What Riddle&Code Does
Distributed assets are only useful if someone can see them, predict them and steer them together. KERN does that work continuously, forecasting, reacting and dispatching without manual intervention, based on live telemetry, market signals and learned patterns.
It runs as a continuous loop of five steps: forecast, demand, rebalance, dispatch and confirm. Partners take part in the first two, sending forecasts and demand signals. KERN handles the other three by itself, choosing which assets to use, rebalancing the portfolio, dispatching them and confirming the outcome.
Products
KERN For Utilities
For a utility, KERN acts as the autonomous management layer over customer assets. It lets the utility launch a flexibility product under its own brand without building an operations team to run it, and it handles Redispatch 2.0 compliant dispatch on its own.
KERN For Aggregators
Aggregators bidding on energy markets get a rolling 24 hour flexibility forecast for each asset and for the portfolio. KERN can trade intraday arbitrage and place FCR and aFRR bids, with dispatch driven by real-time day-ahead and intraday prices. Every dispatch is confirmed at asset level and reported back in real time.
KERN For Energy Communities
Energy communities use KERN as their optimisation and control layer, aiming to maximise shared self-consumption. It steers shared storage and controllable loads by itself and works alongside the community’s existing billing system. Peak shaving and demand charge reduction fit here too.
KERN For VPP Platforms
Virtual power plant operators often face many asset types, makers and protocols. KERN gives them unified telemetry across all of it while their own platform stays primary. A white-label Asset Connectivity Module is available for platforms that want to embed the connectivity layer.
NODE ZERO Hardware
NODE ZERO is a line of edge devices developed with the RDDL Foundation and “designed from the ground up for energy infrastructure, not adapted from general IoT.”
| Meter Bridge | A local-first edge hub |
|---|---|
| ZIGBEE³ | A USB Zigbee coordinator |
| Meter Link | A Zigbee relay for MBus and optical interfaces, including 3-phase metering |
How It Works
KERN sits behind the meter and talks to partners through one clean API, using REST and WebSocket for normalised telemetry and dispatch commands. How it reaches the assets depends on the site.
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Zigbee Mesh | For assets on the same premises, a low-cost, self-healing mesh network that is easy to deploy. |
| MIOTY | For assets spread over a wide area, an IEC 62657-1 LPWAN with about 10 km of range per gateway, independent of LTE and WiFi. |
| Edge hardware | NODE ZERO devices link meters and local assets to the platform. |
| Asset protocols | Modbus TCP/RTU, SunSpec, EEBUS, OCPP for EV chargers and proprietary inverter APIs. |
| Security | Each asset authenticates with a certificate, so no one can take control of it without authorisation, and data is encrypted end to end from sensor to platform. |
| Regulation | The platform is compatible with controllable load regulations in Germany and Austria. |
Company Background
| Headquarters | Vienna, Austria |
|---|---|
| Leadership | Alexander Koppel (CEO) |
| Partnerships | RIDDLE&CODE Energy Solutions formed a joint venture with Wien Energie in 2021 |
Note: This overview is compiled from Riddle&Code’s publicly available information as of 4 November 2026. It is provided for information only. NHI Mgmt Group does not endorse any vendor, and nothing on this page represents the opinions of NHI Mgmt Group.