Hygge Power, pronounced as ‘Hoo-gah Power’, is a blockchain power start-up that goals to vary electrical energy era and distribution. In a dialog with EFY’s Sharad Bhowmick, the founder and CEO of Hygge Power, Prateek Saxena emphasised the significance of native era and absorption of unpolluted power to spice up the EV charging infrastructure in growing international locations. Listed below are some excerpts from the interview…
Q. What does Hygge Power intend to do?
A. Hygge Power is about native era and native absorption of unpolluted power, which lastly creates a web zero neighborhood. There are 2 billion folks with no entry to electrical energy and one other 2 billion, who don’t have entry to dependable electrical energy. At Hygge Power, we’d like to alleviate the world from power poverty by offering options to the geographies with no electrical energy. Our predominant patent and software program are about monitoring renewable era.
Q. Are you able to briefly describe your predominant expertise?
A. We monitor renewable power era. As carbon credit aren’t solely a operate of renewable era, but additionally of consumption, Hygge’s patented software program tracks each the parameters inside a neighborhood (the place Hygge’s platform is obtainable) in every occasion, i.e., the information is recorded for every millisecond.
For instance, I’m in Canada, and if I push my renewable era into the grid, the place greater than 80% of the power is generated from a clear supply, primarily from nuclear and hydropower and whether it is clear then it’s carbon-free. Equally in Germany or different international locations which aren’t powered by coal or oil, there isn’t a level in supplying the generated power again to the grid, as a result of in that case, I’m not producing any carbon credit.
So it’s important for me to have a system to establish the place this one unit of renewable era at that specific occasion goes. So, we have now this easy AI which identifies probably the most carbon-intensive utility (throughout the neighborhood) and allocates that unit of renewable era to that utility, as a result of electrical energy will all the time circulation the best way it flows, i.e. from excessive potential to low potential. So, it’s only a matter of accounting, monitoring and allocating.
Hygge Field (Credit score : Hygge Power)
The bogus intelligence algorithms developed by the corporate determine when to cost a battery or when to utilise the power saved within the battery and tips on how to file the information. The bogus intelligence and the utilization of blockchain nodes embedded throughout the Hygge Field is an modern technique to cut back power consumption and maximise revenue for the customers.
Q. What’s the want for blockchain in your answer?
A. Blockchain is a trusted means the place we all know that there’s a trusted purchaser, there’s a trusted vendor, with out revealing their identification and the transactions occur. It’s required as a result of there’s a monetary transaction occurring between the vendor and purchaser, which is once more on a millisecond by the millisecond and is predicated on the information which is being captured. So, by having blockchain nodes embedded within the field, these monetary transactions happen in a safe method.
However blockchain expertise is taken into account a really energy-intensive expertise. Therefore, we went for a sample which is exclusive and low power intensive than blockchain expertise. We embedded it within the Hygge field, which is an IoT field, and never on the cloud. We’re most likely one of many first few start-ups able to doing it.
Q. Please clarify the working of the Hygge field.
A. The hygge field is sort of a small laptop the place the AI and the algorithms are all embedded in it, together with the blockchain nodes.
For instance, a Hygge field resides on the petrol pump and measures the ability on the inverter, i.e. how a lot photo voltaic is being generated each second. The Hygge packing containers are additionally linked to the consumption aspect on the hundreds and measure the power consumption of various functions such because the lights, motor of the gasoline pumps, workplace air conditioners and so forth. Now, there’s a new load which is EV charging. So, it measures how a lot power is being consumed by which load and if the battery pack is recharging.
So, the Hygge field is a proprietary expertise developed by us, that exactly measures the utilization of power and computes the carbon credit. This entire new information assortment is all native and that’s the great thing about our answer. We don’t push it into the cloud for processing at each second, which is an costly, power-intensive and unreliable course of. So, in our structure, all the things could be very native as it’s all finished on the Hygge packing containers.
Q. What occurs in areas with frequent web shutdowns?
A. It really makes our system extra dependable. After the ledger accounting, tokens get transferred. If a driver is available in at an IOCL pump to cost her EV and there’s no web connectivity at that time limit, they’ll nonetheless pay and cost their automobile as a result of the factors or the EV charging tokens (and I’m not speaking about crypto) on our app may be transferred for EV charging operations. And it’s finished by tapping your cellular phone on the Hygge field. So, the tokens are transferred out of your cellular phone to the Hygge field. And it will get gathered on the EV station.
Q. EV chargers require a considerable amount of energy. Can the prevailing grid and transmission system assist the rising power demand?
A. A quick DC stage 1 EV charger requires about 15 kilowatts of power, whereas stage 2 DC chargers require greater than 30kW. At the moment, a lot of the petrol pumps in India are fed by 5 kilowatts to 10 kilowatts of distribution transformers. So, the grid just isn’t sturdy.
For those who’re placing a further load of 15 kilowatts into a petroleum pump station, you must improve your transformer to a minimum of 50 kilowatts to cater to the load. Now, you not solely should improve the distribution transformer but additionally should look if the neighbourhood is upgrading some other load.
If a number of new hundreds have emerged, then you must even change your service station capability and it’s not a straightforward downside to unravel. And due to this fact, it will take a variety of money and time to improve the grid for recharging functions.
Q. Please elaborate upon your present initiatives in India.
A. In India, the Hygge platform is being utilized by Indian Oil Company Ltd. (IOCL). They’re utilizing photo voltaic rooftops on their petrol pumps to energy electrical autos (EVs). Curiously, the petrol pump load may be solely met by photo voltaic as much as 80% of the time, together with at evening, which requires extra lighting. So, we have now added battery packs that shops power generated throughout the daytime.
We analyzed the power consumption for the final 12-18 months and fed the information into our simulator. After calculating the dimensions of the battery and the photo voltaic panels, we discovered that over 80% of the petrol pump power necessities have been met by that setup.
Q. Any ideas on the present state of unpolluted power penetration, particularly, photo voltaic?
A. Opposite to the final perception, nowhere on the planet is photo voltaic penetration greater than 10%. Even in California, which is taken into account a ‘Sunshine State’, the photo voltaic penetration is simply 4%. Italy has achieved the very best on the planet, which is rather less than 10%.
India is lagging in rooftop photo voltaic of their targets by nearly 80%. A significant issue exists and so, it is extremely necessary for all of us to concentrate.
Q. What in keeping with you is the issue, then?
A. The issue just isn’t about expertise or the information of its advantages. The issues are multifold.
The primary is with the fundamental enterprise mannequin. Now we have observed that the present mannequin is monopolistic, the place nobody else however solely the state electrical energy board together with one or two corporates are supplying electrical energy. So, for a rooftop photo voltaic proprietor, it’s not a really rewarding situation. The utilities get hit due to rooftop photo voltaic.
The second downside is for the rooftop photo voltaic proprietor as a result of if they aren’t dwelling or not utilizing the enterprise, so, for instance, there are various faculties which have put in photo voltaic however throughout the summer season they aren’t working so they aren’t consuming their very own photo voltaic era. So, the photo voltaic which is being generated just isn’t absolutely consumed or accounted for.
The third downside is that photo voltaic power is generated as a low DC voltage, which is saved in low-voltage battery packs. So, if it must be transported or shipped from one a part of the nation to the opposite a part of the nation it must be finished on a high-voltage grid. Due to this fact, the low-voltage DC must be stepped as much as a better voltage and transformed to AC energy, which is pricey and requires new infrastructure.
Q. Please shed some mild on your enterprise mannequin.
A. To start with, we consider that the most important price—the battery—ought to be owned by the utility. So, if a shopper desires to put in a rooftop photo voltaic, they don’t have to purchase a person battery with the inverter. The utility firm would set up a battery inside a neighborhood and these batteries may be as massive as a trailer’s dimension. By utilizing these batteries, utilities will have the ability to construct non-solar clients at a standard worth, with out shedding out on the income which is occurring due to the set up of photo voltaic.
Secondly, we guarantee that they’re able to set up batteries and get a technique to get well that price via our platform. It’s as a result of now, they’re getting paid for a renewable era as they’re redistributing it. So, it additionally helps them to create resiliency throughout the neighborhood. The Texas energy disaster of 2021 is a traditional instance the place there was no electrical energy for nearly two weeks. If that they had batteries like what we’re proposing, it will have created resilience for some interval.
Q. Do you assume your tech is able to accommodating future EV charging calls for?
A. In our design, simply by placing the battery, there was no must improve the transformer. It may possibly present system reliability. By catering via a photo voltaic rooftop, we prevented upgrading the distribution transformer for our consumer by making certain that 80% of the petrol pump load is met. Furthermore, the invoice for the petrol pump went down from Rs 20,000 to round Rs 3500. And this 12 months, there was sufficient energy to energy electrical automobiles for as much as eight hours.
Q. What has been the response to the web metering program in India to this point?
A. In India, there are only a few states which have gotten web metering and clients are very reluctant to use for web metering as a result of there are a couple of advantages to it.
For instance, in a web metering program, utilities are shopping for power at a wholesale worth whereas they’re promoting you at a retail worth. So if the wholesale worth is Rs 3.5, whereas, the billing buyer will get electrical energy at Rs 11-16, there isn’t a web good thing about the photo voltaic rooftop web metering program.
Q. What challenges did you face working within the Indian photo voltaic business?
A. In our initiatives inside IOCL, it was noticed that the utility is not going to allow us to promote greater than 80% of the photo voltaic generated, which stalled our returns. It was extra economical to e-book the battery and pump it again to the petrol pump and cut back the load. That was a greater return on funding than investing or enrolling on a web metering program.
Q. How have been the opinions for the tokenized fee and advance reserving amenities?
A. The tokenized fee system is your fee gateway that will or might not work since you need tokens in your pockets, which may be completely used for recharging functions.
The advance reserving of EV chargers sounds quite simple, nevertheless it’s an enormous downside, particularly within the context of India. Do you bear in mind when India launched CNG filling, there have been lengthy strains for filling CNG by taxi drivers? However with our Hygge field, each driver can e-book and recharge at their desired time.
The hygge field is a plug-and-play machine, it’s like a router constructed with protocols which talk not solely with the inverters and batteries but additionally with the EV chargers on a typical protocol. By doing that, it connects to our app and facilitates advance reserving.
Q. In such a ‘connected-network’ situation, what are your plans to mitigate the upcoming cybersecurity points?
A. Though cybersecurity is a significant downside in any linked system, having blockchain as one of many applied sciences for our platform, we don’t foresee massive safety challenges.
However once more, like some other expertise, it must be tried and examined. I don’t assume that blockchain has received that publicity, being a comparatively new expertise. However sure, we’d expertise and study extra about that as we go alongside.
Q. Hygge Power is a software-centric firm, however what concerning the {hardware}? Do you design and manufacture or procure the {hardware}?
A. All of the computation is finished within the Hygge field, which resides on the era aspect and on the consumption aspect. And it data the information of era and consumption for every millisecond, and it matches on the platform. Since this sort of {hardware} is presently not accessible available in the market, we constructed it for ourselves.
Q. Can we are saying that Hygge Power is a microgrid as a service (MAAS) platform?
A. That’s our long-term imaginative and prescient. I’d defer by saying that we’re a purely software-hardware combo platform, however we aren’t asset-based. So, we’re the Ubers, the Olas, or the Swiggys of this area, and we’re making this occur on a software program platform.
Our predominant clients aren’t photo voltaic rooftop homeowners, however utilities. We promote photo voltaic neighborhood packages as utility packages. We’re extra of a B2B firm than a B2C firm.
Q. What’s the following massive leap for Hygge Power?
A. For the following 5 years, we will likely be very geography-focused as we’re selling our answer primarily based on the necessity of a selected geography.
For instance, in India, we promote solely solar-based EV charging options. And now, we’re scaling it to nearly 5 lakh EV charging places in India. However in North America, we’re targeted on community-based web metering. Right here, we are able to promote photo voltaic to a neighborhood of fifty folks and make it web zero. We’re anticipating nearly 100 communities within the subsequent 5 years.
In the long run, we wish to combine all of the options on our platform and turn into a worldwide aggregator of carbon credit. As we speak, the carbon credit score market is about $ 3 trillion, and it’s estimated to develop by nearly 25% CAGR. It’s going to be an enormous market differentiator for us.
Q. In your opinion, with what abilities can a final-year scholar or an early skilled keep related in at present’s market?
A. One of many essential differentiators which I discover between the Indian and Canadian schooling methods is peer-to-peer studying. Within the West, I realized extra from my friends than from my professors. In India, you study from books, professors and lessons, however get little or no publicity to sensible issues.
So, I might encourage college students to not draw back from getting hands-on expertise. In class, you’ll positively get that engineering information however for the sensible expertise, you must push your self and do issues with your personal fingers.
