In order to achieve the objectives of the Feasibility Study, we have examined the market within several European countries, held detailed conversations with utilities, manufacturing companies and ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) design firms. The method employed consisted of personal interviews with stakeholders in the BL!XT ecosystem of partners and customers, along with an extensive desktop research exercise, which enabled us to quantify information about target markets, including their sizes, needs and key drivers as well as potential impact.
Interviews were conducted with utilities based in Spain, France, UK, Portugal, Holland, Germany, Ireland and Sweden, as well as non-European utilities in Dubai, Australia, the US, Thailand and Japan. While all the utilities consulted expressed a great interest in the DigiBreaker, for various use cases, we selected three utilities (based in Germany, UK and France) for follow-up workshops to discuss joint collaboration. The choice of these countries was decided because utilities based in France, Germany and the UK are pushing hard for energy transition and are actively seeking solutions for demand-side management at the grid edge. Moreover, they all face rising volumes of EVs and need new solutions to handle disruptive loads. Within the three selected utilities, there is a strong champion pushing for closer collaboration with BL!XT. All three selected utilities have a proven track record of deploying their own HEM systems and smart home solutions.
In addition, we have met with many of the largest OEMs and they are all looking at solid state circuit breakers, however, so far only hybrid mechanical versions and none of them have a product on the residential market yet. Based on the questions we have received from them we understand their main challenges and concerns. In general, most OEMs find it hard to believe that we have managed to overcome all those challenges and want to see to see an actual physical demonstration. A demo in their own lab is essential to move the discussion forward. For this purpose BL!XT launched a dev kit program and started shipping evaluation kits.
The successful commercialization of BL!XT technology will only be possible if relevant stakeholders are aware of its benefits and capabilities. This means not only DigiBreaker customers (e.g. OEMs), but also the full value chain needs to understand the major breakthrough that DigiBreaker represents. In order to overcome this challenge, we have decided to initially focus our efforts on raising the awareness of the utilities and service providers of the technology. BL!XT is continuously communicating about its technology at various innovation events and competitions, which will allow us to broaden our international network of partners and investors. In 2018-2019 we attended 8 European fairs and events in Finland, US, Germany, Sweden and Monaco and won 5 awards including: the SET Awards (2019); Inission Innovation Award (2019); CleanEquity Monaco (2019); and, Innovation Race, Power Circle Summit/ Swedish Energy Agency (2019).
