Closing Powerscope: When Ambition Meets Reality in the Energy Sector
What we tried and why we couldn’t make distributed energy work at scale
Myself and Rowan Molony have come to the difficult decision to close out our energy start up Powerscope.
Our vision was to pioneer a new distributed energy major powered by modern digital infrastructure that delivers for customers.
Our first product was a software tool designed for commercial businesses to evaluate the feasibility of investing in distributed on-site renewable energy assets. We developed this from the ground up to capture each customer objective, market opportunities and leave the door open for supply side counterparties to plug into, eventually including us.
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We were fortunate to develop our offering with some amazing industry partners and large end users including Lidl Ireland and Freemans Plc. Our innovation and capability rapidly brought simple energy cost reduction to more complex applications of onsite batteries to reduce rising local grid constraints, under software control.
Whilst the disruptive opportunity was massive, equally as massive were the adoption hurdles over established grid energy services, where the majority of the costs have been socialised and friction points minimised over decades.
When it comes down to Who’s going to pay? and more importantly Who’s going to benefit? the current market frameworks on the supply side remain vastly underdeveloped. Digital technology is increasingly important in customer acquisition but the risk management and benefit attribution required, even in a distributed energy system, still demands significant scale and financial collateral.
So despite significant customer interest we couldn’t establish a sustainable business model. Whilst this has been a painful realisation, I’m proud of our ambition and fundamentally believe there remains a massive opportunity for innovation, especially in markets like Great Britain and the USA (TX, CA) where players are integrating components and services to build credible offerings.
Lastly I’d like to thank everyone from early adopters, mentors and supporters who helped us on our journey. I’m considering the next steps and it’s my intention to continue to leverage my knowledge and skills within the industry so feel free to reach out and let’s grab a coffee!
Terry
