Periodic Reporting for period 1 - gridBox (A smart energy management system for energy transfers and improved grid efficiency)
Reporting period: 2018-01-01 to 2018-04-30
The gridBox increases the return on investment for renewable technology and lowers the break-even point. This will make renewable energy a more popular investment to make, benefiting society massively by adding a significant amount of renewable electricity to the grid. It will also allow many decentralised renewable energy producers to save a significant amount of money and reduce their overall energy usage.
The overall objectives are to: complete a systematic survey of stakeholders´ requirements, expectations, and needs to define the specifications and features of the final commercial gridBox; a development plan to move the MVP to an industrial prototype; an industrialisation plan for both the pilot trial and commercialisation will be needed; compliance with all necessary regulations; a pilot trial with DRE producers to validate the effectiveness and claims of the solution.
● The renewable markets’ trends show that the growth of renewable technology will continue as many developed countries aim to reach their target goals for 2020, 2030, and 2050;
● The market’s problems and needs aren’t being met by the current solutions, energy transfer systems, or smart meter analytics;
● We found that our business model needed to be changed for improved commercial success. The most beneficial business model to approach the market would be to start generating the majority of our profits from the sale of the gridBox device, but as our solution becomes more mature in the market shift the majority of our profits to come from the energy transfers;
● The new markets we will explore after Germany are the Netherlands, UK, Ireland, France, and Spain. These markets are being targeted not only due to the growing usage of renewable technology and energy systems, but also due to our contacts and strong connections throughout these markets.
● The initial MVP of the gridBox solution was finalised through stakeholder feedback (suppliers, distributors, and customers).
● The necessary regulatory and standard requirements were investigated further which allowed us to develop a better understanding on how to bring the gridBox solution to market. With this we updated the regulations and standards and have contacted a certification company to assist with the securing of necessary regulations.
Innovation over the state of the art:
1) Connection to the grid allows for sale of excess electricity generated;
2) Smart management of renewable energy produced;
3) Savings from energy analytics of users’ electricity demands.