The Mahatma Quiz

Ecolibrium Energy at Climate Solver 2014 award ceremony

Four Indian innovators – GPS Renewables Pvt. Ltd., TESSOL, Simpa Energy India Pvt. Ltd. and Onergy (Punam Energy Pvt. Ltd.) - were conferred with WWF-India’s Climate Solver Award 2014 in a glittering event held at New Delhi which was graced by the presence of Honourable Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change – Mr. Prakash Javdekar.. Started in Sweden in 2008 and in India in 2012, the Climate Solver initiative has now expanded to include countries like India, China and South Africa.

The Climate Solver (CS) initiative is WWF’s global innovation platform to encourage and support low carbon innovative technologies that contribute towards mitigating climate change.  The platform strengthens the development and widespread use of low carbon technologies that are being commercialized by thousands of SMEs around the world. 

Ecolibrium Energy were winners of Climate Solver 2013 and were invited to attend the award event for speaking on our growth story over the last 1 year and understand how have our technology helped mitigate climate change and reduce GHG emissions. We discussed about our focus in the growing domain of big data analytics and how can it help create innovative climate mitigation technologies. Using Energy Analytics, companies can not just reduce their emissions and use energy efficient means of manufacturing products, but can also save money in the process. As a pioneer in Clean technologies in India, we are committed to the cause of Energy Efficiency and climate change mitigation. Ecolibrium Energy is also the winners of UNFCCC Momentum for Change 2014 as a prominent Lighthouse activity.

Describe Ecolibrium Energy!

So we asked our team to describe Ecolibrium Energy and guess what, they came out so well, that we decided that the world should see it. Cheers!

Trivia on Indian Power Sector

Fostering Energy Efficiency in Industries using Energy Intelligence

In today’s Era where the world is already facing such a huge crisis of energy sources, there is still enormous amount of energy being wasted due to mismanagement or inefficient consumption and unaccountability, especially in developing countries like India. Hence we at Ecolibrium Energy has developed a technology which is helping Industries in managing and hence optimizing their energy consumption.

This seminar was conducted by Ecolibrium Energy to spread the information of technologies and to let the manufacturers know that how could they optimize their consumption.

The very first question arises is how to manage the energy consumption as all the industries don’t have the same consumption pattern or process being run. As an answer to this question the very first thing needed to do is to start counting the consumption or you can say to monitor the consumption on real- time basis which will make you able to manage and shift the load as per the convenience. Once any industry starts counting only then they will be able to see the loop holes of the system and once the reason is identified then appropriate measures could be taken to remove the same.

SmartSense has been emerged as very Effective and Economic tool to perform all the above mentioned things. SmartSense is a web Hosted Real-Time Energy Monitoring Platform which enable the user to track and optimize their Energy Consumption.

Mr. Parthiv Patel discussed the loop holes which has been found in general in manufacturing Industries as well as how the user has been able to eliminate these loopholes and optimize their energy consumption. We had Mr. Tekriwal (BMA Head), Mr. S.K. Goyal (BMA Sec.) our channel Partner Mr. Anil Grover (BMA former Sec.) on the Chair. We had a great audience from all sector of manufacturing, Namely Kamdhenu Ispat (Steel Industry), Orient Syntex (Textile Industry) KEI Wires and Cables (Cable Industries), Hi-Tech Gears (Automotive Industries) Bal Krishna Tyres (Tyre Industries) Ahlcon Parental (I) Ltd. (Pharma Industries) etc.

Clients Speaks: Mr. H.R. Sharma (Executive Director Orient Syntex) says “By using Ecolibrium’s Smartsense I have been able to monitor the energy consumption 24X7 even on my cell phone, the manual errors has been completely removed and by the end of this year we will definitely achieve min. 5% reduction in our energy Consumption.” Mr. Hemesh Mathur (GM Kamdhenu Ispat) says “The Coal consumption has been already reduced by 20% and the material loss by 1%, by the end of this year I will definitely add INR 1.5Cr to my profit due to Smartsense.

A journey called Growth

Before this, I thought of writing on “what customers are doing with the toys (SmartSense) gifted by Ecolibrium Energy”! Then, I thought of what they are doing comes much later than how we set expectations. Early before I joined the Ecolibrium family, team used to pitch clients for SmartSense. Unanimously, the approach was to convince client to install our system – whether they buy it or take as a demo at least. A PO used to make environment joyful, whereas a demo used to generate hope. A strong plea we used to make in front of the clients, followed by our personal presence during installation to sustain client confidence. Similar appeal continued for almost six months, subsequent to my joining, though with a polished approach.

On the back-end – we used to give consistent feedback to the Tech-team about the issues we faced. Tech-team was more like a SWAT team today and was spending a great amount of time in fire-fighting. It was their great support, we could stand in front of the clients. Whenever there used to be an issue, firmware developers used to be there on the field with all his weapons, along with BD team. It was then, client created an image that we go on the site, diagnose the issue, we leave the site (if job is done, or even day gets off), we come back and ensure system operation gets on track healthily.

Then came an era when our development and sales push reaped fruits in the form of goodwill customers across Gujarat. In parallel, teams in northern India was putting full throttle efforts in convincing the clients for demo even – almost same what Gujarat BD team used to do 6-8 months back. Truly, it was not a cakewalk for them. Same cycle repeated in the Southern India in 2013-14. However, for each such leap – we had not only better technology platform to offer, but also a lot of client reference, a few channel partners and some more products to offer. I am sure, looking into the past all the clients – who are with us till date – would appreciate efforts as flawless and sustainable. I am sure they would agree with me that there were technical hick-ups in our solution, but not any flaw in the value delivery. 

With most of these customers – whom we can say innovators – have always been demanding. More demanding then the early adopters; and even more encouraging. We could successfully set rational expectations. In a typical industry – where AMC (annual maintenance charges) used to be paid for typical services (like computer, big machines, house-keeping, etc.), we could convince people faithfully for AMC for Energy Management Services. Their readiness to pay AMC shows their trust on the values, Ecolibrium Energy delivered.   

If they teach in the class about “Product Life Cycle”, some us could proudly say we have been through the journey. It’s like – it take immense efforts for a chick to crack the egg-shell. Once cracked, then comes life. If there is a life, there is an element of growth. Growth requires sustainable efforts. Sustainability has to prosper to survive. I think, we are in a stage where “Growth requires sustainable efforts”.

Beginning with a stable SmartSense, this year we are much equipped and ready to gear up GridSense and GreenSense. While SmartSense will penetrate further the industrial space this year, GridSense will unlock its potential having Smart Grid Projects and GreenSense shall see a way forward with a few industrial customers and hopefully a few government undertakings. For the first time in the history of Ecolibrium Energy, this year, we shall grow by stretching all its core products – SmartSense, GridSense and GreenSense – together.

(Tapan Patel is the author of this post and a long time team member and currently leads the Projects team)

A glimpse of this creature called 'Smart Grid'

When was the last time you read these statements somewhere-  "We need to use more renewable energy", " Solar Energy is the future", " Save Energy- SAVE THE EARTH"... The answers would range from 1 hour back on a billboard on the road, to day back on a television infomercial.

While we talk about using more and and more clean sources of energy, the key fact remains that most renwable energy sources are intermittent in nature (Solar only in daytime, wind speed varies). Thus it becomes key that we manage our sources of energy in a smart and effecient manner by making you realise the 'real' cost of electricity at all times

To understand this better, Lets leap ahead, say, 15 years to another really hot week, but one in which there are a large number of electric vehicles. It's lateafternoon and the electricity grid is already straining to cope with the excessive use of air conditioning, then a whole fleet of electric vehicles arrive home from work, get plugged in and bring down the grid. At least thatis what would happen if the operators weren't able to manage demand through differential tariffs or even direct control.

Now lets add in a final complication to the story. Staying 15 years hence, we add a whole load of small scale renewable energy sources embedded throughout the grid. While the sun shines this great – it is a local source of energy supplying local demand and is a relief to thegrid. Until, that is, the storm clouds gather and the sky goes from blue to grey. You dont really need to be a solar energy expert to know that as the storm clouds roll over in this hypothetical early evening, the power from these power sources will drop immediately, putting yet another strain on the overworked energy company.

Let's now replay that scenario but with smart grid technology. During the day, using market signals (in other words, different tariff during different times of the day), the utility has managed to reduce demand and now has some capacity headroom. As electric vehicles plug into this network, the driver is asked if recharging can wait for a cheaper time. I imagine that most people will say "yes" and so there will be minimal extra load from the few who need to reuse the vehicle in the near future. And finally as the storm clouds converge over the solar panels and local production drops, the utility is able to instruct the city's thermostats to rise by 1 degree, again protecting the grid from failure with minimal inconvenience.

A smart grid is this and much more. It is not only a smart IT layer on the crumbling electricity distribution system, but also a platform to build newer and exciting applications such as in-house energy display screens showing you current energy consumption and the existing rates, or systemic alarms on your cellphone if you have left your AC on during your vacation (and being able to switch it off from your cell phone too!)

In 15 years time, if my hypothesis (and not just mine alone) is correct, we have no choice but to have intelligent grids:

• To make the most of the assets that exist
• To manage the different energy sources, especially the intermittent ones
• To avoid blackouts, which fundamentally are the classic way of managing demand, through dynamic management of load.

A smart grid is something that not only makes the electricity distribution smarter and more efficient, but also serves to make consumers smarter about electricity usage, the only way to achieve an energy revolution. And we have to start on this journey now!