Moixa sees £5m investment for AI in the smart grid
The deal allows ITOCHU, one of Japan’s leading trading houses, to market Manchester-based Moixa’s GridShare platform, which manages and optimises home energy storage systems.
Itochu aims to sell over 6,000 units of the ‘Smart Star’ home battery systems through its distribution network in Japan by the end of March 2018 and will install GridShare as standard on products by the summer of 2018. The technology uses artificial intelligence to optimise the performance of battery systems based on usage, weather conditions and market prices.
Japan had over 125,000 energy storage systems in 2016, which Moixa and Itochu forecast will exceed 500,000 in 2020. The GridShare technology optimises the performance of batteries and can also manage large fleets of devices to help support solar generation, control vehicle charging and deliver services to the electricity grid.
Itochu is also a major supplier of battery chemistry to leading energy storage brands, and will work with Moixa to promote GridShare to address the growing market for battery management services. “Moixa has pioneered battery management, and we are proud to be investing and working together to target the rapidly growing energy storage market in Japan. Moixa’s GridShare will help our customers get more value for their home batteries and will offer solutions to help our partners manage Japan’s low-carbon transition,” said Koji Hasegawa, General Manager of Industrial Chemicals Department at ITOCHU.
Next: UK trials
Moixa already works with Japan’s largest utility, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and has a partnership with Hitachi to develop a smart energy grid in the Isles of Scilly. It is also planning trials in the US and Europe this year.
“Itochu is a major player in the global battery market and this partnership provides a real opportunity for us to expand our business in Japan and provide GridShare technology to many global battery companies,” said Simon Daniel, CEO of Moixa (above).“GridShare optimises the performance of home batteries by learning patterns of household energy use and solar generation, and adjusting to local weather and energy price signals. It can also help customers make more money by using their spare battery capacity to provide services that help utilities and electricity networks balance supply and demand.”
The deal is a signficant boost for Moixa, which has raised £500,000 from existing shareholders alongside the £5 million from Itochu. This follows £2 million raised in 2017 plus a £1 million funding facility from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
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