Manchester-based Evergreen Smart Power are an innovative Virtual Power Plant business, using a digital platform to aggregate and control domestic energy loads resulting from electric vehicles (EVs) and heating to suit specific customer, market, generation and grid conditions.

Evergreen’s EV solution can respond to grid conditions, moving charging to off-peak hours to reduce strain on the network at peak times, while ensuring that EVs are sufficiently charged when needed. The solution also optimises other loads, such as heat pumps and electric heaters.

Energy Launchpad helped Evergreen develop their future roadmap through competitive landscaping, consumer insights/trial and detailed analysis with our Business Model Innovation team. This examined alternative target markets and revenue streams. Outputs were developed to be used for pitches to future investors.

Following this incubation support, Energy Systems Catapult then helped Evergreen develop and deliver a follow-on test & demonstration project called Flexibly-Responsive Energy Delivery with 250 consumers driving and smart-charging EVs at home – supported by our Consumer Insight team.

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Evergreen Smart Power Co-Founder Andy McKay said: “Prior to this piece of work we had one main product. In effect this has identified two new product variants that address innovative opportunities and other areas that will move quicker than our long term market. This will translate into 3 separate platforms requiring separate teams.

“Energy Launchpad has allowed us to tap into a wide range of energy sector industry expertise with a support package tailored to our specific needs. It’s an opportunity every energy start-up would benefit from.”

Senergy developed a solar thermal panel designed to deliver affordable heating. Unlike solar PV made from glass, copper and aluminium components, Senergy’s panels are 100% polymer plastic – increasing their thermal efficiency whilst reducing delivery and installation costs.

Currently, Senergy operate as a manufacturer, selling panels as part of a building’s heating system. However, recognising the value of the panel’s aesthetic and structural properties, provides an opportunity to adapt their commercialisation strategy to reach other target markets both in the UK and abroad.

Energy Systems Catapult worked with Senergy via our Energy Launchpad, including:

• Home Energy Dynamics – using our ground-breaking simulation tool, our Modelling experts helped validate the performance of the product with a range of housing types and occupancy profiles to understand the value proposition and economic benefits.
• Digital Energy Fitness Assessment – our Digital and Data team assessed the digital readiness of both the innovation and the business.
• Business Modelling Innovation – our experts helped to refine their business model, how they pitch to customers and developed their route to various markets.

Energy Systems Catapult’s support helped Senergy to:

• Validate a plan to compete like-for-like with solar PV, and to integrate the product with other technologies, such as heat pumps and thermal batteries to help reduce heating costs during the winter period.
• Progress the TRL of their product from 4 to 6.
• Win three new pilot customers to carry out demonstrations.
• Find new partners to collaborate, integrating the product into complete home heating solutions.
• Secure £130,000 of funding to invest in progressing the TRL towards commercialisation and build internal capabilities to become investor ready.

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Airex has developed a smart ventilation control – an intelligent air brick – that automatically regulates air flow using sensors to monitor temperature, humidity and air quality.

Tens of millions of homes in the UK were built with low energy efficiency standards, with poor insulation leading to cold rooms and uncomfortable draughts, with traditional air-bricks or vents being responsible for up to 15% of heat loss in the home. This means occupants often need to turn up the heating, which in turn drives up energy bills.

Energy Systems Catapult’s test and demonstration environment – the Living Lab – has almost 2,000 real-world homes. Airex were supported to accelerate their innovation to market with product validation, exploiting data from a real-world trial to further product development, support with business planning, and extending the monitoring period in the Living Lab to a larger scale.

• Living Lab – Airex received a wealth of data about the performance of their smart ventilation product, which enabled them to validate their initial energy savings estimates for their consumer proposition.
• Consumer Insight – from the consumer trial helped Airex refine their customer value proposition.
• Industry collaboration – through the Smart Systems and Heat (SSH) programme, we facilitated collaboration with SSH industry partners Engie and EDF Energy; collaborating together at the VivaTech (2018) and EDF Electric Days (2018) exhibitions.

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For start-ups, getting orders right and delivered on time can be the difference between building a loyal customer base and losing business – as customers lose trust in your service. And it’s not always easy – especially when you’re planning to scale up your operations.

Airex knew that their manual process of managing stock and fulfilling orders would not last forever. Through the government’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio programme, we helped them map out a scalable order fulfilment journey, integrating with their current tools and resources, to support their next stages of growth.

• Service Design – from understanding Airex’s operations and growth strategy via a literature review business operations documentation, to interviews with key employees and a co-creation workshop, we developed a service blueprint. This blueprint mapped each back-office step AirEx would need to take, along with every interaction point with their third-party suppliers and customers – tied together by software integrations, linking their communications, pipeline, and invoicing software with a new manufacturing and stock control software that fit the unique needs of the business.

Founded in 2017, Sero sit at the intersection of buildings and energy and have developed a range of services and toolkits to help developers and property owners design, build and run zero-carbon building, optimising the performance of the properties and providing ongoing services to homeowners and tenants to ensure homes are comfortable and cheap to run.

Energy Systems Catapult worked with Sero via the Energy Launchpad to help overcome the barriers to innovative consumer service offerings, by drawing on unique capabilities in consumer insight, business model innovation, digital energy systems and platforms.

The Catapult also support Sero in preparing for investment in order to secure the funding required to scale the business and build a pathway to a decarbonised community.

Legal & General Capital and Hodge announced that they are investing £5.5million into Sero Technologies.

With over 10,000 new build and existing homes within its identified pipeline, Sero has forged strong relationships within the housing sector, creating tailored net-zero energy retrofit plans for homes, assuring them using building passports and managing them using its smart home energy management system, ‘The BEE’ (Building Energy Engine) and comfort based service model.

Sero has initially focused on working with social housing providers facing major challenges around regulation and funding, as they look to reduce emissions to meet net-zero targets. Legal & General and Hodge’s investment will support Sero in its next stage of growth, as well as its aims to support the delivery of net zero financial products with institutional partners.

Energy Launchpad helped Sero with investment readiness, including advice and support to prepare an investor pack, identification of target investors and curated introductions.