Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups in the energy industry. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share some of our insights with you. This time, we are taking a look at 5 promising Smart Meter solutions.
Heat Map: 5 Top Smart Meter Startups
For our 5 picks of smart meter startups, we used a data-driven startup scouting approach to identify the most relevant solutions globally. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 interesting examples out of 600 highly relevant smart meter solutions for the industry. Depending on your specific needs, your top 5 picks might look entirely different.
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Greenbird – Data Integration Platforms
Software platforms for smart meter data integration help utilities to connect smart metering devices to their end-users and use metering data for building a smart grid.
Norwegian Greenbird develops Utilihive – a Smart Meter Data Integration Platform as a Service. It’s a cloud-native integration platform that cuts integration time from 6 to 12 months to less than 1 month. The platform creates a flexible, multi-vendor architecture to help electricity providers better utilize smart meter data.
AutoGrid – Demand Forecasting
The availability of smart meter data gives utilities an opportunity to perform analytics and forecast future demand. Utilities use these predictions for balancing electricity supply and demand in order to prevent blackouts.
US-based AutoGrid creates software that analyzes data collected by smart meters and by sensors placed throughout the electric grid. This software figures out energy consumption patterns and, when enough historical data is available, it can forecast how much electricity will be needed at a particular time in the future.
Sympower – Demand Response Aggregator
Smart meter data is used for balancing electricity demand with supply. Utilities can differentiate pricing for a peak demand period in order to incentivize changes in consumer consumption behavior. Besides that, utilities can use smart meter data for automated demand response.
Dutch startup Sympower offers a software solution coupled with hardware that is able to control the demand side by switching off electricity consuming appliances for a short time to balance the grid.
Fresh Energy – Energy Consumption Insights & Energy Efficiency
Smart meters are the perfect source of data on energy consumption. That’s why a lot of startups utilize this data to enable energy efficiency and provide customers with valuable insights on their consumption patterns. Some apps combine smart meter data and gamification to motivate users to save energy.
German startup Fresh Energy, for example, develops an app that analyzes smart meter data to help customers understand their energy consumption and show how it can be changed in order to achieve energy efficiency.
Chameleon Technology – Smart Meters Interfaces
Smart meter interfaces include smartphone apps, as well as in-home displays, which enable users to see their energy consumption data, collected by a smart meter installed in their homes. An in-home display is a small electrical device with a touch screen, paired up with a smart meter.
UK startup Chameleon Technology develops and manufactures smart in-home displays (IHDs), which securely access real-time energy data from smart meters and show them to the user.
What About The Other 595 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence for your Proof of Concept (PoC), partnership, or investment targets. The 5 Smart Meter startups showcased above are promising examples out of 600 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria and collaboration strategy, get in touch.
