Open Energi’s software turns energy-intensive equipment into flexible devices, reducing their electricity consumption when demand for electricity is higher than supply.

Open Energi works with large energy users to turn their energy-intensive everyday equipment, including refrigerators and furnaces, into smart devices that can adjust their electricity consumption in real time to help the UK utility company, National Grid, manage electricity supply and demand. Open Energi’s Dynamic Demand platform responds to changes in grid frequency within two seconds. It then unlocks small amounts of flexible energy demand and aggregates it to create a distributed storage network, intelligently increasing or decreasing consumption in real time. This helps to create a market that does not need polluting power plants to be turned on when electricity demand peaks.

Open Energi develops contracts for each customer, and typically covers the capital costs to install the technology. It then shares the revenue it receives from National Grid for helping to balance electricity supply and demand with customers. As of February 2016, Open Energi had 41 contracted customers, twice as many as the year before.

Demand flexibility, storage, and interconnection are essential in helping to reach carbon emission reduction targets. By aggregating energy demand from flexible equipment, Open Energi provides no-build, flexible capacity which is cheaper and cleaner than most alternatives.