This creates a Virtual Energy Store™ that can be sold to the grid to help it balance supply and demand.
Graham Oakes, Upside’s Founder and Chief Scientist, said, “This is the culmination of four years of hard work since we entered the Nesta Dynamic Demand Challenge, sponsored by National Grid back in 2013. We’ve taken Upside Energy’s cloud platform from a wild and speculative idea to a solid, innovative solution to help people harness the opportunities created by the confluence of two trends: the growth of renewable generation and the rise of smart devices.”
With the UK’s energy system in transition there is an increasing need to unlock demand-side response. Upside has developed a software platform that connects suppliers and users of energy by harnessing latent capabilities of connected devices.
Capable of providing core services to transmission and distribution network operators, energy suppliers, battery owners, renewable energy generators and providers of commercial and residential property-based solutions, it enables customers to save on their energy costs or earn revenue by changing their demand curve to solve imbalances for the grid.
Following three years of development and testing, including collaborative studies with the UK government, universities and global equipment manufacturers, the Upside cloud platform is in its commercialization and scale-up stage, and is being rolled out to the wider market.
SYSTEMIQ and Legal & General Capital have invested alongside Modern Energy and Bulldog Innovation Group. The capital will be used to expand the team in order to further develop the platform’s capabilities, accelerate commercialization and drive operational deployment.
Jeremy Oppenheim, Founding Partner of SYSTEMIQ, said,“ We are extremely excited to announce our first investment in Upside Energy, and look forward to working with the management team and our co-investors to make this business a success.”
Devrim Celal, Upside’s CEO, concluded,“This investment will help us scale up our operations and realize our vision to create a new, cleaner and more equitable energy system.”
