Home energy Internet of Things provider GreenCom Networks has completed a fundraising round with Centrica Innovations, designed to support its technology. The IoT system is designed to support energy retailers.
GreenCom Networks have developed an end-to-end solution to support distributed energy resources. The technology enables energy retailers and energy device original equipment manufacturers to provide new and alternative digital energy services.
The aim of the new investment round was to help with Greenroom’s international expansion, with a focus on Europe. Another benefit from working with Centrica was to gain experience from a customer-facing business. Centrica own one of the U.K.’s main energy providers, the former state-owned British Gas.
The IoT technology represents the future direction of the energy market which will be more heavily orientated towards distributed assets like photovoltaics, batteries, electrical heating devices and electric vehicles.
Photovoltaics concerns the conversion of light into electricity through the use of semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. A photovoltaic system is composed of solar panels, which each panel containing solar cells. These cells generate electrical power. The efficiency is dependent upon the amount of sunlight and the location of the installation (such as rooftop mounted or wall mounted).
The Internet of Things (IoT) for energy provides new opportunities for data collection. Data analytics can be used to develop new services, enhance productivity and efficiency. Data can also assist with real-time decision making and problem solving.
IoT for energy can also assist national grids by aggregating energy consumption from across customers’ sites to provide a faster and more flexible solution. In the past energy providers would seek to adjust supply up or down to meet demand; now the focus is on adjusting demand up or down to meet supply. However, as with any IoT technology there are risks relating to security and complexity in terms of greater fragmentation across the energy sector.
These innovative technologies are not only expected to grow, they offer new opportunities for energy service companies to provide end-to-end services for customers. GreenCom, a German based software-as-a-service company, provides services that integrate distributed assets from many vendors to facilitate new energy services such as power, heat or mobility flat-rates.
