ARENA-backed ‘app store for energy’ platform will offer choice and portability for home, small business and school electricity consumers

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, February 19, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Australian-based clean technology company Wattwatchers Digital Energy, which specialises in monitoring and controlling electricity through the cloud in real-time, today is launching a world-leading project to build an open consumer energy data platform business.

The first public event for Wattwatchers’ My Energy Marketplace (MEM), which won a $2.7 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) late last year, is being held at EnergyLab, in the inner-Sydney suburb of Chippendale, Australia’s leading cleantech accelerator program.

The Australia-wide MEM rollout will include installation of ARENA-subsidised Wattwatchers smart energy solutions at 5,000 homes and small businesses, plus 250 schools; with participants receiving data, communications and software services for three years provided under consumer-friendly Terms and Conditions, with provisions for sharing with the project.

The ‘Meet the MEM Information Evening’ is being preceded by an invitation-only MEM Stakeholder Workshop engaging energy and data experts. The workshop will focus on the key challenges and opportunities for empowering home and business electricity consumers with data-driven solutions.

The evening event’s keynote guest speaker is Natalie Isaacs—founder of the 1 Million Women practical climate action movement, and author of the internationally-acclaimed book, Every Woman’s Guide to Saving the Planet (ABC Books/HarperCollins, 2018) - who will introduce 1 Million Women’s ‘Women Power’ campaign. Wattwatchers and 1 Million Women have previously partnered on a ‘Women Power’ pilot, with support from the City of Sydney, with 10 women-led households cutting carbon emissions, energy use and power bills with the help of Wattwatchers-provided real-time energy data.

Other speakers will include Wattwatchers’ CEO Gavin Dietz, and the company’s Chief Innovation Officer Grant Young who is leading the MEM project; Ross Sharman, the founder and Executive Chairman of Accurassi, creators of Energy IQ; Leon Young, founder and CEO of app development platform business, Cogniss, which specialises in digitally-enabled behaviour change; Sainty Law founder and CEO, Katherine Sainty, a leading legal expert on consumer data rights; Dr Lynne Gallagher, Director of Research and Acting CEO-designate for Energy Consumers Australia (ECA); and Dr Bjorn Sturmberg from the Australian National University (ANU) Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program, which is running a three-year PhD Student Project with the MEM.

Tonight’s launch event at EnergyLab precedes the planned appointment in March 2020 of a high-profile external Consumer Energy Data Advisory Panel (CEDAP) to guide Wattwatchers and the MEM project. The panel will focus on data access, ownership, control and portability for electricity consumers in the rapidly-emerging ‘New Energy’ marketplace.

CEO Gavin Dietz, who joined Wattwatchers in 2016 to lead its growth phase in Australia and internationally, said that the MEM project began life in ARENA’s ideas incubation program, A-Lab, during 2017, under the original working title: ‘The people’s energy data bank’.

‘This project has always been about harnessing the power of data to help energy consumers,’ said Dietz. ‘This in turn is faithful to the founding vision for Wattwatchers dating back to 2007—when energy costs were only half what they are now and there were only 7,000 rooftop solar systems in the whole country—which was to empower consumers with energy data.

‘Fast forward to 2020 and our vision now is an “app store for energy” business model, which will give electricity consumers unprecedented control over their energy data, with portability and choice of apps and services. To achieve this, the MEM’s channels to market will include community-based partners like 1 Million Women, with its large online community of followers; and also Renew (formerly the Alternative Technology Association (ATA)), which leads policy research and programs, manages Sustainable House Day nationally, and publishes the magazines Renew and Sanctuary.

‘The Wattwatchers MEM team is now actively recruiting new channel partners including local councils, school communities, citizen initiatives, industry associations, member-based organisations and corporate partners. Deployment at home, small business and school sites will begin in earnest in a few months time, ramping up throughout the 2021 financial year.’


Additional MEM events and announcements will follow, including the launch of the MEM marketplace app, mydata.energy. In the meantime, potential MEM partners and project home, small business and school participants can register their interest online via Wattwatchers’ website at https://wattwatchers.com.au/mem.

About Wattwatchers: Wattwatchers Digital Energy is an award-winning Australian technology company focused on devices, data and communications to make behind-the-meter energy management intelligent, connected, easy to install and operate, and cost-effective. Based in Sydney, Wattwatchers develops and markets ‘IoT for energy’ hardware + firmware + software solutions to accurately monitor, analyse and control electrical circuits in real-time through the cloud. The internationally-certified Wattwatchers product suite is highly flexible, crossing over for residential, commercial and industrial, and utility use cases; and works with an expanding choice of cloud platforms, software applications and consumer interfaces. More information at: www.wattwatchers.com.au


ARENA ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This Project received funding from ARENA as part of ARENA’s Advancing Renewables Program. The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained herein.

Murray Hogarth
Wattwatchers
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