SETalk #1: FlexiCity
With rapidly falling wind and solar energy costs and binding climate and energy targets, electricity systems in the EU and US are “decarbonizing” rapidly. The integration of these intermittent energy sources is however leading to variable and uncertain bidirectional power flows in distribution and transmission grids. Demand response (DR) — which can shift the timing of electricity consumption toward periods when (renewable) supply is abundant and absorb wind and solar forecast errors — is widely seen as having potential to deal with these decarbonization challenges at very low cost. Our startup FlexiCity leverages on collaborative research from UC Berkeley and KU Leuven to develop a vertically integrated software platform for electric energy services. Our solution is universally applicable to all electrical residential thermal loads types, such as water & space heaters.