I interviewed David Balensiefen, (Co-Founder and CEO) and Andreas Booke (Co-Founder and CTO) at gridX. GridX is a fast-growing IoT German startup providing IoT solutions for digital leaders and the digital transformation of the energy industry.

GridX – Energy IoT Solutions For A Decentralised And Digitised Energy Age

Why did you create GridX?

The global energy system stands at the verge of a far-reaching paradigm shift. The centralized supply model that has been working well for decades is now being challenged by the new one providing decentral, digital and clean energy.

During David’s previous work for a small energy supplier he noticed that most of the production units are not intelligently connected to the energy grid. These include solar systems and battery storage systems. Hence neither the network operator nor the energy supplier knows the exact location and amount of energy production. It generates an inefficiency for all parties involved. This is where the solutions of gridX and the company foundation together with Andreas came in place.

David Balensiefen – Founder personal story.

GridX was founded in 2016 by David Balensiefen and Andreas Booke in Aachen. The story of gridX begins with a sketch on a napkin during a trip of the two founders to South America. David and Andreas met before in Aachen while they were both studying at the RWTH.

Initially, gridX offered end customers a manufacturer-independent platform to intelligently connect their photovoltaic and battery storage systems to the grid. Due to the high demand from B2B companies, gridX has shifted its focus to this area. The company benefits strongly from its B2C phase and now passes on its experience to its B2B customers.

What is your vision?

GridX is a fast-growing start-up in the energy IoT sector, aiming to become the operating platform of the decentralized and digitized energy age. To this end, gridX provides companies with flexible, scalable and manufacturer-independent energy IoT solutions to digitize the energy infrastructure. We want to help thousands of companies to realize more efficient energy IoT projects and to create new business models.

How does gridX help your customers and partners?

Our solution is aimed at organizations such as utilities and OEMs who have not yet had the need to drive a digital transformation. Maybe because they had a central power plant structure, which is not sustainable, or they did not saw the need for digital business models yet. We help them become a part of the profound changes which have gripped the energy industry.

The main benefits for our direct customers: resellers

First, our direct customers benefit from our solution. Companies that use our technology and resell it to their end customers have many advantages from recording the data. By collecting, storing and evaluating the data, the efficiency of existing business models can be maximized and gaps for new business models can be discovered.

Furthermore, the end customers benefit from the fact that they can monitor all their data themselves and thus gain complete transparency. With the help of vivid visualization, we make energy production and consumption comprehensible and understandable, thus arousing people’s interest in thinking about their energy consumption and reducing it.

Four solutions integrated: Smart Charging, Microgrids, Smart Commercial and Independent Homes.

We have already integrated four different solutions: Smart Charging, Microgrids, Smart Commercial and Independent Homes. All solutions are built on our platform, are white label and can be expanded by customers’ requests. The solutions ensure active energy management and save money. With Smart Charging, for example, expensive network expansion can be avoided, and operational costs can be reduced.

More people have access to clean energy.

With our solutions, we have ensured that more people have access to clean energy. With each gridBox implemented, the on-site use of renewable energy from connected generation plants is maximized and energy consumption of connected loads is managed as efficiently as possible. This is also cost-saving and expensive grid expansion can be prevented.

What makes gridX different?

Other companies also offer complete IoT solutions. GridX, however, stands out with its enormously powerful and flexible hardware. Our energy management systems can control integrated energy devices much faster than our competition. GridX’s solutions are manufacturer-independent, and we place great value on ensuring interoperability between energy devices of different OEMs. More than 90% of the globally available inverters are currently integrated in our platform.

Furthermore, gridX uses modern software tools. The organization of our DevOps team allows us to run very fast iteration cycles, while at the same time maintaining strong transparency to the customer and enabling an unprecedented collaboration experience.

The software and cloud are based on a docker container structure which allows the individual development of applications for and by our customers. This results in a modular design which enables a fast and easy adaption to customer requirements. We constantly expand our range of services and make the developments to all our customer available after approval.

Additionally, it is important to us, to ensure the highest safety standards and easy usability. Therefore, we provide over-the-air microupdates and a straightforward and automated setup via plug&play.

A great team behind the solutions makes gridX different, too. Our two offices are in Aachen and Munich and we have expanded our team to 30 employees so far. All of them are special talents who help to drive gridX forward. We work in flat hierarchies and remotely. Therefore, one of our employees even works worldwide from his camper.

How to get in contact with gridX? 

By its website:

You can easily get in contact with us via our website www.gridX.ai or you can also meet us at some fairs and exhibitions. If you are interested in our press activities visit www.gridx.ai/press.

By its Social Networks:

To stay in touch with us we recommend our social media channels to you:

• Facebook: https://de-de.facebook.com/getgridX/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/getgridx?lang=de
• LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/company/gridx
• Xing: https://www.xing.com/companies/gridxgmbh

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Javier Nieto León