Engie has made an investment into cloud-based energy data management solutions company Energyworx.
Based in both the United States and the Netherlands, Energyworx offers energy companies its software-as-a-service energy data management platform, which provides several solutions such as Cloud Meter Data Management and Energy Deal Analytics.
Through its investment, Engie is expanding the existing partnership between the two as well as leading Energyworx’s latest funding round. This saw EDP and SET Ventures also invest, with Engie’s investment made through Engie New Ventures.
The collaboration will see the capabilities of Engie’s suite of digital platforms enhanced, with Energyworx bringing its intelligent consumption pattern analytics to the table. This is to help Engie to deliver smarter supply, bid and pricing decisions, the companies said, which will then result in lower energy prices and maximised use of renewable energy for Engie’s customers.
“Analysis of customer load shape and renewable supply intermittency is fundamental to guiding our customers in their sustainability journey to carbon neutrality and best pair them with clean renewable energy tailored to their needs,” Scott Pinizzoto, senior investment director at ENGIE New Ventures, said.
He lauded the Energyworx platform as enabling Engie’s various business units to “build the sophisticated analytics they need to create offerings that scale the deployment and adoption of renewable energy”.
Engie North America has already partnered with Energyworx to optimise its competitive bid preparation process for commercial and industrial customers.
This, the companies said, helped Engie to build “sophisticated anomaly detection algorithms and proprietary analytics to respond quickly to changing customer behaviors” as well as market conditions all while “maintaining a high level of competitiveness”. This has resulted in Engie’s bid processing times decreasing threefold and its bid win rate increasing.
The companies also gave the example of Engie North America being able to adapt to the changes in energy consumption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the company “rapidly adapting” its algorithms and pricing analytics to continue to accurately predict and price energy supply.
“Everything we do is designed to accelerate the world’s transition to clean energy. We’re proud that Energyworx can support a leader like Engie to solve data issues in an increasing number of their core processes,” Marcel E. Smit, CEO of Energyworx, said.
In the UK, Engie has recently been focused on its electric vehicle (EV) charging network, Geniepoint, which it acquired in 2019. It is currently working on the installation of thirteen 50kW+ rapid chargers in the west midlands, as well as recently signing a deal with Biffa to install chargers at its sites across the UK.
In January, Engie exited the UK domestic supply market in a deal that saw it hand off its domestic supply arm to Octopus, transferring its 70,000 customers.
A month later, it then announced that its board of directors had elected not to reappoint Isabelle Kocher, putting it in the market for a new chief executive.