Angel Support for Plug-in Energy Saver
Dr Ilett and Alan Needle are providing £30,000 to help Grimsby-based Energy Optimizers develop their ground-breaking device, the PLOGG, and expand their sales in the US and Australian markets. The support has also enabled the company to secure additional lending to create an overall investment of £150,000.
The PLOGG is a plug-in device which logs the energy used by individual appliances and can be programmed to switch appliances on and off at fixed times or in response to outside signals, such as generation from a wind turbine or energy pricing information transmitted through a ‘smart meter’.
More sophisticated than most plug-in meters, the PLOGG communicates with other devices, PCs and smart meters via wireless connection making it easy to analyse and reduce energy usage.
“Energy companies can use the PLOGG to understand how business and residential customers use electricity at the appliance level,” says Energy Optimizers CEO Shaun Merrick. “This can help them find ways to encourage consumers to switch off to reduce energy usage, or to shift usage by a few minutes or hours to help balance electricity supply and demand.
Energy Optimizers has sold the PLOGG to research and development projects in Europe, Australia and North America for field trials involving tens or hundreds of consumers, helping to balance local and regional electricity grids. The company plans to use the knowledge gained from these projects in the development of lower cost devices for the mass market.
“The PLOGG is the ideal tool for these field trials, as it is easy to install, provides rich, accurate electricity usage data, communicates via industry standard protocols and has an open, highly programmable structure,” explains Dr Ilett. “It has security features which protect the consumer and the appliances, and ensure that appliances can only be switched within the parameters agreed by the consumer.”
The PLOGG is also being used by corporate energy managers to work out low energy options, such as whether appliances are best left on standby or powered back up each day. One business found it saved energy by switching drinks chillers off overnight and rechilling them in the morning, rather than leaving them constantly switched on.
“Saving on energy is increasingly not just about how much you use it, but when you use it, as companies bring in different price bands for peak and off peak periods,” explains Dr Ilett. “Although mainly used by corporate clients at the moment, the PLOGG has the potential to tap into millions of residential customers as people become more sophisticated about their energy use.”
With twenty years experience in the energy sector, Dr Ilett immediately saw the potential in the product when he was sent information on the company by the Yorkshire Association of Business Angels. The deal was finally arranged with the support of high-tech investors group, the Viking Club, of which both he and Alan Needle are also members.
The investment is helping the company secure the necessary certification for the PLOGG to be used in larger deployments in the Australian and US markets and to continue research and development of the product for further expansion in the UK.
