As the number of people recognising the urgency of the climate crisis grows, so too does the clamour for green energy solutions – a cry which did not go unnoticed by the organisers of this year’s Singapore International Energy Week.
Among these individuals were Ted Chen, 29, and Martin Lim, 48, who both spoke in front of a gathering of the world’s top energy professionals to explain how they are trying to encourage people in Singapore, and beyond, to adopt more sustainable energy practices.
TODAY spoke to both men to find out how they are trying to do this with their energy start-ups.
Importance of data analytics
Despite being an electrical and electronic engineering student specialising in power systems and renewable energy, Ted Chen was more interested in data analytics than a future in the energy sector.
“There are just so many things you can play around with,” said the Nanyang Technological University alumnus, who moved from Taiwan eight years ago to study in Singapore.
“With data, you don’t need someone to tell you what is right or wrong. You can use data and then pick it up for yourself.”
It all came full-circle for Chen when he and his classmate, Myanmar native Phyo Ko Ko, won a hackathon some six years back. The contest required participants to find a way to combine power electronics, such as sensors, with software algorithms.
The duo’s solution became the basis for them to found EverComm Singapore in 2013 after they roped in a third person, Singaravelan Thirugnanasambandan, to help them with the business side of things.
Since then, EverComm has been in the business of helping other businesses – such as hotels and industries – to improve their energy efficiency.
According to the National Climate Change Secretariat website, Singapore is actively supporting research on clean energy technologies to cut carbon emissions.
However, these goals are challenged by limited access to alternative or renewable energy. A better option, it says, is to make energy efficiency a key focus.
“The fact of the matter is … we have the technology to address the climate change issues, but we don’t know how to effectively coordinate and execute it,” Chen said.
“That’s why data analytics becomes very important in this area.”
Optimising energy efficiency
EverComm, for its part, has been able to help businesses optimise their energy efficiency by integrating wireless sensors within a company’s operation systems that are constantly collecting data “every minute, or even, every second”.
Algorithms then analyse the data to provide clients with real time information about where they are “wasting energy” – due to faulty equipment, for instance.
Depending on the customer profile, Chen said, they have been able to improve their energy efficiency anywhere from 5 percent to 40pc, in addition to the “30pc average productivity improvement.”
To recognise Chen’s contributions to Singapore’s energy sector, the Energy Market Authority chose him as the inaugural winner of the youth category of the biennial Singapore Energy Award.
An EMA spokesperson said the youth award, which was presented to Chen in October, was introduced to recognise the overall contributions from young industry professionals who are “passionate about the energy sector”.
The spokesperson said it hopes the award will inspire other youths to contribute to the sector.
Chen, who manages Evercomm’s overseas operations in Israel, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and Myanmar, said the start-up is looking to expand to China, India and Germany.
On the local front, Chen said he hopes to bring more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on board.
Chen said it has been hard getting SME owners to bite, even though his systems are relatively inexpensive at a “few hundred dollars” per month, compared to the “usual tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
SMEs generally do not invest in technology, including digital infrastructure, due to their limited budgets, he said. “They’re in a negative cycle.”
This causes them to “lag behind,” not only in terms of energy efficiency, but also in production efficiency, which in turn affects their revenue.
To that end, Chen said EverComm is trying to figure out how to bring his technology down to a level that would allow SMEs to pick it up in a more cost-effective manner.
Getting people to think green
At an Asia Clean Energy Summit panel discussion held during the conference, Martin Lim told the audience that the new model for businesses and technology is going to be decentralisation.
“Utilities need to stop thinking of themselves as the alpha predator within an ecosystem,” said the chief executive officer of Electrify, a local energy-technology company that provides a marketplace for retail electricity.
“Instead, be the ocean. Be the ecosystem itself and allow everyone (new players) to thrive,” he urged utility companies.
Speaking to TODAY, Lim said utilities can still benefit by creating a platform to let competitors come in to “serve the customers.”
“Even if they take the customers away from (them), they will still have money to make,” he said.
Fortunately, there is wriggle room for the new players in Singapore.
Thanks to a deregulated energy market, and the appropriate framework, almost anyone can pump electricity back into the national power grid, Lim said.
This gives rise to the possibility of energy trading, a concept that Lim tested recently with 15 participants on Electrify’s Synergy peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading platform.
Satisfied that the idea works, he said, Electrify will be starting a six-month trial in the first quarter of next year that will involve around 60 customers.
Though no customers are onboard yet, Lim is hoping to find 10 “prosumers” – owners of private households and factories who have solar panels installed on their roofs – and 50 consumers.
Synergy’s P2P energy trading works by giving consumers who want green energy a platform to receive power from “prosumers” who have excess energy to sell.
Lim reassures consumers that using Synergy will not affect their power supply in any way, as any shortfall in energy will be supplied from the national power grid.
