As part of the SET Award 2019, the top 100-ranked start-ups who applied for the SET Award were rewarded the opportunity to participate and showcase as part of the Innovation Hub at the 24th World Energy Congress (WEC24) 2019 in Abu Dhabi. Sponsored by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, this incredible opportunity includes travel and accommodation expenses, and a showcase space for the SET100 at the congress.
In the lead up to WEC24, we asked the participating SET100 start-ups to answer a few questions to provide potential partners the opportunity to learn more about them and to also help other start-ups learn from their experiences. We thank them for their work toward the global energy transition and for sharing with us the following insights.
#SET100 Start-up: DC Power CO (Australia)
DCPowerCo is building the world’s first consumer owned, solar focused, energy retail and services company. DCPowerCo plans to be the largest supplier of electricity and associated energy services to the household solar PV market in Australia. DCPowerCo will segment the electricity retail market unlocking the full potential of Australian household solar by aggregating, and therefore, increasing the value of their solar which creates a market place for emerging technology and service innovation.
Traveling, pitching, partaking in meetings, and networking requires considerable time and effort. Other than perhaps being given a blank check, what is the best case scenario or result you as a start-up hope to get out of participating in initiatives such as the SET platform and the Innovation Hub at the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi?
Showcasing DC Power CO’s unique business model that aims to unlock the collective power of Australia’s 2m households with solar PV on their roofs. Distributed energy is the future and DC Power CO intends to the put households at the centre of this revolution. I am excited to see what is being developed around the rest of the world and feel sure there will be some amazing new ideas and companies that might be future partners for DC Power CO. And a global battery partner would be great too!
Given the stage of your start-up and your particular focus/sector/technology, what is one challenge that you have overcome or lesson that you have learned that may be valuable to other similar start-ups?
Households are hesitant to change but there is a groundswell of passion around the energy transition with 2m households with solar (that is 20% of Australian households). To help these households, understanding their needs and concerns will help create tech where they are the centre of the design.
What is one of the main obstacles or regulations that you have had to overcome prior to, or in preparation of market entry into your given business environment?
Electricity is highly regulated and the household is protected by legislation but as a consumer only, in the new world of electricity they are prosumers (as both solar generators and consumers of grid energy) which requires a different mindset from the regulators.
Is there some recent news or something else you would like to share?
Following up from our world largest first CSF offer with 17,500 investments in March 2018, we are very excited to announce that we have just launched our second crowd source funding. See here: https://www.birchal.com/company/dcpowerco
Some recent news coverage: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/industries/energy-resources/fair-dinkum-power/
Thanks for reading and thanks again to DC Power CO. More information about them can be found here: https://www.dcpowerco.com.au/
More about the SET100, including a full list of each SET100 start-up can be found here.
