Staying ahead of the technology curve means strengthening your competitive advantage. That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the energy industry. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups developing energy theft tracking solutions.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 5 Top Energy Theft Tracking Solutions out of 78
The insights of this data-driven analysis are derived from the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2.093.000+ startups & scaleups globally. The platform gives you an exhaustive overview of emerging technologies & relevant startups within a specific field in just a few clicks.
The Global Startup Heat Map below reveals the distribution of the 78 exemplary startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research. Further, it highlights 5 energy startups that we hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. You get to explore the solutions of these 5 startups & scaleups in this report. For insights on the other 73 energy theft tracking solutions, get in touch.
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Solarex offers a Smart Meter powered by Blockchain & the Internet of Things (IoT)
Energy utilities lose billions annually due to energy theft. To reduce financial loss and, more importantly, energy wastage, startups are developing smart meters. These devices provide real-time information regarding energy consumption to energy suppliers and consumers. This allows operators to detect energy theft and enables rapid resolution.
British startup Solarex offers the Solarex Smart Meter using blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. The solution analyzes blockchain data and delivers accurate and real-time information regarding energy consumption to providers and consumers. The meter constantly looks for any bridge in the network and alerts the stakeholders upon detecting a potential electricity theft.
High Five Innovation Labs builds an Alternative for Smart Meters
Although smart meters are one of the most effective solutions to detect energy theft, they are generally expensive. To address this problem, startups are developing substitutes for smart meters. These alternatives offer some of the major capabilities of smart meters at affordable prices. For example, they gather the meter readings remotely using wireless radio signals or peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
Indian startup High Five Innovation Labs develops an IoT-based, cost-effective energy meter with the functionalities of a smart meter. The technology enables distribution companies to check real-time energy consumption on a dashboard provided by the solution. The real-time data in the pre-paid smart meters enables them to remotely identify power thefts. Similarly, it allows consumers to check their energy usage via a mobile application.
GridMetrics develops a Digital Twin for Theft Detection
Energy theft is abundant in rural areas and slums in developing countries. These are also areas that are generally not served by smart meters due to poor infrastructure. To tackle this problem, startups facilitate energy theft tracking solutions that do not require smart meters. Technologies such as digital twins detect energy theft as the remote twins constantly monitor their physical counterparts and collect information through sensors.
Bulgarian startup GridMetrics develops a digital twin that detects energy theft using regular meters. The digital twin runs algorithms that analyze historical energy consumption data and identifies customers with an anomalous usage pattern. The solution considers a wide range of external data to determine any theft. It then alerts an inspector who visits the concerned customer to examine the situation. After the inspection, the system generates a report and uses it to improve its analyses further.
TekUncorked provides an IoT-based Smart Grid
In addition to smart meters, other components of the smart grids also help in detecting energy theft and optimizing consumption. Smart grids allow utility companies to monitor, analyze, control, and communicate within the energy supply chain using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, the IoT, and Big Data. This not only reduces consumption and cost but also maximizes the transparency and reliability of the system. Further, startups use traceability solutions and real-time data to detect abnormal energy usage, such as from energy thefts.
Indian startup TekUncorked provides a smart grid solution to improve last-mile electrical distribution. LVIoT Grid Controller, the startup’s solution, uses IoT and Artificial Intelligence to digitize, automate, and augment intelligence in line voltage (LV) grid assets like air circuit breakers (ACBs), distribution transformers, and feeder pillars. This cuts down the losses in electricity distribution by detecting electricity thefts, fault forecasting, alerts on LV breakdowns and failures, and remote automation.
MassiveEnergy builds Anomaly Detection Algorithms
Detecting power theft is imperative to reduce energy wastage. So, startups are adopting several methods for detecting anomalous energy consumption. This includes neural networks, support vector machines, k-nearest neighbors (KNN) algorithms, and Bayesian networks. These technologies run in real-time for anomaly detection in cloud platforms.
Turkish startup MassiveEnergy develops anomaly detection algorithms that analyze stray electricity consumption. This allows electricity distribution companies to detect illegal power usage, helping them adjust the billing amounts correctly and prevent energy wastage. The platform also builds an interactive relationship between operators and consumers by providing personalized consumption analysis and driving them towards responsible consumption.
Discover more Energy Startups
Energy startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on energy storage, renewables, distributed energy resources (DERs) as well as quantum computing. While all of these technologies play a major role in advancing the energy industry, they only represent the tip of the iceberg. To explore more energy technologies, simply get in touch to let us look into your areas of interest. For a more general overview, you can download our free Energy Innovation Report to save your time and improve strategic decision-making.
