John Lloyd, Chief Marketing Officer, ClearlySo
With Earth Day tomorrow and world leaders expected to sign the Paris Climate Agreement, it is important that we support businesses like Upside that are reducing carbon emissions through the use of innovative technology.”
London, United Kingdom (PRWEB UK) 21 April 2016
Upside Energy announced today that it has secured £545,000 in seed funding to expand operations, build out the senior management team and run a large scale pilot with National Grid. Upside Energy creates a Virtual Energy Store™ by aggregating unused energy from devices owned by households and small business sites that inherently store energy, to sell balancing services to grid operators which helps reduce the need to turn on the older, most polluting and expensive power stations during peak demand times.
Upside exceeded its target raise of £500,000 from ClearlySo’s extensive network of high-net-worth angel investors, along with support from industry leaders such as Ian Marchant, former CEO SSE, and Chris Joly from Vitol. Chris has joined Upside Energy as a non-executive director to represent investors. Ian Marchant, Neil Hughes, former Head of Technology at National Grid, and Ivan Berkes, former Director of Corporate Planning and Business Development at Emerson Network Power have joined Upside’s Advisory Board. Prior to this seed funding Upside had received grants from Nesta, EU Climate KIC, Department for Energy and Climate Change and Innovate UK totalling £810,000.
Upside’s solution has an immediate positive environmental impact by replacing a portion of the Balancing Services market that uses traditional carbon-intensive generation. Upside anticipates that during the first twelve months of operation it will recruit approximately a total capacity of 27 megawatts (9 megawatt hours of energy under management) and save 653 tonnes of greenhouse gases (based on calculations by National Physical Laboratory’s Centre for Carbon Measurement). Additional benefits are gained by displacing the need for “spinning reserve”, i.e. power stations operating at reduced capacity.
Graham Oakes, Founder and CEO of Upside Energy, stated: “Upside is creating wins for everyone. By unleashing the flexibility within domestic and small business sites, we can reduce the cost and environmental impact of energy while improving the resilience of the grid. This funding is a big step on our path towards a cleaner, more equitable energy system.”
Further commenting, John Lloyd, Chief Marketing Officer of ClearlySo: “We are pleased to have helped such a great business that is improving energy efficiency and helping protect the environment. With Earth Day tomorrow and world leaders expected to sign the Paris Climate Agreement, it is important that we support businesses like Upside that are reducing carbon emissions through the use of innovative technology.”
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Notes to editors
About Upside Energy
Upside Energy was founded in 2013 and was originated for the Nesta Dynamic Demand Challenge.
Upside pays people to not use energy by enabling households and small business sites to participate in schemes for “demand response”, where grid operators and energy suppliers pay people to shift their electricity usage from peak to off‐peak times. By coordinating the energy stored in systems people already own e.g. uninterruptible power supplies, solar PV systems, electric vehicles, domestic heating systems, etc. Upside creates a large Virtual Energy Store™ and uses this to balance supply and demand on the grid, thus making it easier to integrate renewable generation.
About ClearlySo
ClearlySo is the United Kingdom’s leading impact investment intermediary, working exclusively with businesses and funds delivering social and/or environmental impact as well as financial return. It supports capital raising activity through financial advisory work, and introduces businesses, charities and funds to institutional and high-net-worth individual investors who share their values.
Originally founded in 2008, ClearlySo has helped more than 75 businesses raise more than £105 million in impact investment, including over £5 million investment into early-stage businesses, from its extensive network of high-net-worth individual and institutional investors.
ClearlySo is headquartered in London.