Big Oil wants to put a box in your hall closet that works like a human brain, can cut the lights, stop the refrigerator and will know how you move about in the privacy of your home better than you do.<\/p>\n
Sounds worrying? It\u2019s one of the ideas the world\u2019s largest oil companies are experimenting with to survive in a low-carbon world.<\/p>\n
Companies like\u00a0Lightsource BP, in which British oil major\u00a0BP Plc\u00a0holds a stake, are trialing smart systems in people\u2019s homes that will do everything from generating solar power, storing it and managing consumption. Much like Spotify Technology SA gives users instant access to thousands of cool playlists without having to spend years building up their own collection, Lightsource BP wants to make sophisticated renewable power systems available to average people.<\/p>\n
They are figuring out how to go big on electricity as demand surges with rising prosperity around the world while investors and activists put them under\u00a0immense pressure\u00a0to adopt green policies. However, concerns over climate mean the power industry of the future will be nothing like the past as focus shifts to efficiency and carbon-free electricity.<\/p>\n
Todd Hill, an electrical engineer from Melbourne, lives in a four-bedroom house in a hilly town south of London with his wife and two daughters, represents what Lightsource BP thinks is possible.<\/p>\n
Hill controls this kit, which he estimates cost about $13,000, with an app that gives real time information. So he could be camel-riding in Mongolia and the technology will still know the best time to generate power in his England home and charge the battery. At night, when the solar panels are effectively useless, the battery can juice-up his electric car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main aim is to use everything we generate within the home,\u201d Hill, wearing a dark green shirt with a windmill on it, said over a cup of tea in his kitchen. \u201cSo anything that goes from the PV to the grid is a wasted opportunity that we can save money on.\u201d<\/p>\n
For anyone with less interest in tinkering with their day-to-day power use, Lightsource BP is offering to take control. The company specializes in efficiently generating Hill\u2019s own electricity so he doesn\u2019t produce any surplus which can only be sold to the grid at discounted prices. And ensures he doesn\u2019t end up buying more expensive fossil fuel-generated power.<\/p>\n
When the customer moves around the house,\u00a0the artificial intelligence\u00a0box learns\u00a0patterns, like when a person works from home, or is on vacation, with the purpose of closely matching electricity generation with in-house consumption.\u00a0It can do things like predict the next day\u2019s weather,\u00a0detect individual appliances, collect data on how often and at what times they are used, and help produce a greater share of the power at home.<\/p>\n
Hill is one of 200 people who tested a smart energy-management system for Electricity de France SA local unit and Lightsource BP, in whose lab he also works.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for EDF\u2019s unit EDF Energy said it aims to provide a range of \u201cenergy services,\u201d to customers to keep them on board. Its trial with Lightsource BP ended in 2018 but it\u2019s running other experiments, such as offering discounted batteries to homeowners with solar panels.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get the customer on your side, it\u2019s like an Apple ecosystem; those companies will make it really hard to switch providers,\u201d said\u00a0Elchin Mammadov, a utilities analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. \u201cIt\u2019s trying to make this offering more sticky and then you can up-sell other services.\u201d<\/p>\n
A profitable business for the companies could be managing the power grid itself. A network of homes and businesses with solar panels and batteries could potentially replace some of the giant power stations in the futures. Companies with access to these homes could help balance supply and demand for a fee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s going to be more and more electricity demand,\u201d said\u00a0Kareen Boutonnat, Lightsource BP\u2019s chief operating officer. \u201cYou can manage that by effectively putting in a lot more generation and having generation on reserve and spending billions on having to upgrade the grid, or you can do that by having this type of smart system.\u201d<\/p>\n
More of the biggest oil companies are considering these smart power systems. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which\u00a0bought\u00a0a big U.K. utility in 2017 and wants to be the\u00a0world\u2019s biggest electricity supplier, will also offer a range of\u00a0smart home energy devices. It expects its power unit to eventually generate returns of as much as 10%, close to what it gets from producing and selling oil. French major\u00a0Total SA\u00a0has also acquired a large company, Direct Energie, and is examining different business models.<\/p>\n
They also have tough competition from existing utilities and Silicon Valley tech companies, who are also trying to find the future\u2019s winning power formula. Mammadov said these experimental businesses will probably be loss-making for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, at Hill\u2019s home, they are looking forward to summer. That\u2019s when he generates so much extra power that his family can take hot showers without having to turn the boiler on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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