GridQube team, from right to left: Dr. Frederik Geth & Jordan Clark
CIRED 2023
A young Springfield energy company has staved off a host of global competitors to takeout the start-up award at Europe’s leading international conference and exhibition for electricity distribution – CIRED 2023.
GridQube, which only began operating in 2020, was judged the stand-out start-up at the world-renowned conference, held in Italy and attended by thousands of energy sector representatives from more than 60 countries. The award adds to the growing reputation of the young start-up and its technology designed to increase the intelligence and reliability of the electricity network and ultimately reduce power bills. GridQube chief executive Andrew Deme (illustrated) says the company’s digital algorithm monitors electricity being taken from the grid – and being fed back into it – by “talking” to the growing number of consumers with solar panels, batteries storage technology and electric vehicles.
Founder Olav Krause says anyone who works in solar or renewable energy or has solar panels on their roof has the opportunity to benefit from the company’s technology, which is attracting interest from countries like Germany, China and the United States.
“To put it simply, our technology operates like a giant digital tap,” Krause says. “If it tells us there needs to be more electricity generated to deal with growing demand, we can communicate with solar panels for instance, and feed in extra kilowatts.
“On the other hand, if the grid tells us low demand is raising the threat of solar input being throttled, we can counter that by ensuring more batteries can be charged to help soak up the excess energy. A very important flow on is that the grid becomes more reliable, more efficient and ultimately more cost effective, with the savings generated from the technology flowing to all customers – not just those with solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles.”
By the Courier Mail