Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, water company United Utilities and construction materials supplier Aggregate Industries have become founding partners of the Living Grid, a new demand-response ‘energy ecosystem’ which aims to create 200MW of flexible power across the UK. Initiated by sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future, the Living Grid connects large corporate energy users’ equipment with intelligent demand-side response technology powered by technology parter Open Energi. Businesses can then continuously adjust their electricity usage to adapt to peaks and troughs in demand and supply across the grid, without affecting performance.
Edie 26th April 2016 read more »
A German start-up that supplies smart-heating technology to millions of SSE’s UK customers has raised $23m to help fund its expansion into new markets and roll out a remote monitoring system for household boilers in Britain. This latest round of fund-raising from the Munich-based company brings the total raised so far to $57m, making it one of the world’s best-funded smart home technology companies. Before the coming winter, SSE will use Tado’s technology to monitor and diagnose common boiler problems before sending out a technician. The technology will also allow suppliers like SSE to identify a problem before customers are even aware of it. “Because we are able to connect to the digital interface of the heating system we know up front what is going on inside the boiler – what is the water pressure, is the pump s pinning, are there any error codes showing? And this will work across any manufacturer,” said Christian Deilmann, chief executive of Tado. “So SSE can really reduce its operating expenditure because it’ll know what the problem is, which part is needed and how long it will take to fix,” he said.
Telegraph 26th April 2016 read more »