GreenSync winners of GE Ecomagination challenge

Winner: GreenSync
Idea: Electricity network planning tool for demand management

How it makes an impact:

• A three per cent reduction in overall energy consumption, and around 10 per cent reduction in energy cost is generally demonstrated by monitoring for residual loads and curtailing loads at peak times.
• Reductions in CO2 production are forecast to be 88,000 Tonnes over 5 years through supporting intermittent renewable energy and direct emission reduction.

One of the biggest challenges to the electricity grid are instabilities arising from the growing penetration of wind and solar.

Like many start-ups, GreenSync was started out of a garage to address this challenge. GreenSync founder, Phil Blythe, a research scientist and an engineer by training, worked hard over a number of years to develop the software and analytics that would see GreenSync’s success grow in the Australian market.

“After working with demand response for two years, we got to know the business domain inside out, and where the pain points were for customers. Once we understood that, we could see a new way of doing things that strengthened the value proposition for everyone,” Blythe said.

GreenSync applied specialised ‘big data’ analytics to the task of managing peak energy demand, increasing the reliability of the grid, and lowering energy costs for end users. The technology represents a cheaper method than gas peaking power stations to offset these peaks, whilst lowering customer energy costs.

“The transition to a low carbon economy is tough in the energy sector, and it is going to take many small steps to get there. We see our technology as one of the key steps to stability and flexibility in the electrical grid,” Blythe said.

“By monitoring for residual loads, and curtailing loads at peak times, we typically demonstrate a three per cent reduction in overall energy consumption, and around 10 per cent reduction in energy costs. Overall, our contribution to greenhouse gas reduction through supporting the transition to renewable energy as well as direct emission reductions is forecast to be 88,000 tonnes of CO2 over the next 5 years.”

Winning the GE eco Challenge means that GreenSync can develop a new product capability targeted at network planning.

“We believe this product, which will assist with long term utility planning, will be important for efficient asset growth in the Australian market,” Blythe concluded.