With the draw-on of technology, the consumption of electricity has crossed all bounds. Did you know you consume 1kWh while charging your iPhone? This is the amount of electricity you would need to power ten 100-watt incandescent light bulbs for an hour. Saving electricity is being religious! What if I say that you will be rewarded for saving the non-renewable? No, I am talking about a medal. The news is Ohmconnects pays you an ounce for cutting off the unnecessary power consumption. Excited? Come join the journey!
Ohmconnect pays its customers to reduce their electricity usage. The patrons are notified with text messages or emails stating when to reduce their electricity usage. It then sells energy reductions to wholesale energy markets as generation. In essence, the software turns homes into virtual power plants.
While it require any hardware at all, Ohmconnect also offer the consumers the convenience of connecting their wifi thermostat, electric car, or other smart home devices to automate the experience for them.
Meet the Visionaries!
The co-founder Matt Duesterberg and Curtis Tongue are the followers of sustainable energy . Curtis was working in advertising and marketing world. After which, he felt the need to apply his skill set towards contributing for sustainable future.
Matt worked as an energy trader for eight years. Being the most talented data scientist, he inculcated a personal mission devout his talents for the benefits of energy customers instead of energy trading firms.
“I had been working on a project called ‘Karbon Karma’, which would reward you for reducing your carbon footprint. Matt suggested that we build something similar, but using the energy reductions as the main driver of our business model.” confessed Curtis Tongue.
The Remarkable Solution!
It’s a smart grid, B- grade! Its potential is enormous but it is yet to flourish. When the grid is strained and does not have enough electricity to go around, it fires up power plants called “peaker plants.”
These power plants can cost millions of dollars to build, are grossly inefficient, emit an enormous amount of pollution. It also drives the electricity cost up to 20x when they are turned on.
Grid operators can now have our users reduce their electricity usage instead of turning these power plants on. The state benefits because we reduce the total amount of pollution being emitted and the customers benefit because the grid pays them what they would have paid the power plant to turn on.
A company called “EnerNoc” has already done the concept of Ohmconnect. When the grid is strained, they call up manufacturing plants and tell them to turn off any unnecessary load. Ohmconnect combines this model with the proliferation of residential smart meters and the “Internet of Things” in the home.
Initially, the customer segment was green tech enthusiasts, people at solar panels, highly customized home setups.
The exciting thing is that more mainstream audiences, such as young families and school communities, have started organically adopting our services as a means to control their bills or even start “green energy” fundraisers for their schools.
Monetizating It!
When Ohmconnect users reduce 1 kWh below their forecasted load, it sells that 1 kWh reduction into the grid as if the home were generated 1 kWh at whatever the wholesale cost of electricity is at that time.
It’s offering $50 rebate for users who connect their wifi thermostat to our system. Just sign up at https://www.ohmconnect.com/
