Bosch’s Big Move, AI Heat Pumps, and How Data is Shaping Energy

Currents: AI & Energy Insights - August 2024

Welcome back to Currents, a monthly column from Reimagine Energy dedicated to the latest news at the intersection of AI & Energy. Every last week of the month, I send out an expert-curated summary of the most relevant updates from the sector. The focus is on major industry news, published scientific articles, a recap of the month’s posts from Reimagine Energy, and a dedicated job board.

1. Industry news

1. Bosch will acquire the residential and light commercial HVAC business from Johnson Controls and Hitachi. This is Bosch’s largest acquisition ever. The revenue from the Home Comfort division of the company is expected to reach €9 billion, about 10% of Bosch Group’s total revenue. Last month Bosch also announced the acquisition of German building automation company DMS AG.

   
   What I’m thinking: Bosch sees the potential in combining HVAC manufacturing with building automation. The sector is changing fast and is ready for disruption. It will be interesting to see how much Bosch can innovate as a large company.

2. Ento connects to the Enedis data hub, gaining access to electricity data from 95% of the country’s meters.

   
   What I’m thinking: Electricity data hubs are extremely powerful. With a single integration, we can access historical and real-time data for millions of meters, enabling AI-powered energy optimization for thousands of businesses and public organizations. Countries without an electricity data hub need to act quickly to avoid missing out on innovation. Allowing building owners and third parties to monitor electricity use might be one of the most cost-effective national investments to decarbonize the building sector.

   

3. Boston startup Cala Systems announces AI-powered heat pump water heater. It is built to maximize energy flexibility by taking into account weather data and learning usage patterns.

   What I’m thinking: Water heating represents 18% of home energy use in the US¹, meaning that innovation in this area can make a big impact. These heaters act as thermal energy storage devices, providing flexibility to both households and the grid. Operating a fleet of these systems could also unlock new opportunities for manufacturers.

4. Report from LA startup ChargerHelp shows how poor data is hurting EV charging in the US. Key findings of the report include a critical need for data accessibility and standardization across the industry. This lack of standardization also complicates issue resolution, since software and communication problems cause a large portion of charger failures. You can access the full ChargerHelp report here.

   
   What I’m thinking: The shift to carbon-free mobility is tough. Extracting battery materials, manufacturing vehicles, building charging stations, and decarbonizing the grid are all hardware-intensive tasks with physical limits. We can’t easily change these constraints. But software is different—it can be improved without many of those barriers. That’s why we must minimize software issues and ensure reliable data and applications to support the transition. The report also stresses the need for technicians who understand systems, handle data, and manage QA testing in the field. This aligns with our earlier thoughts: technicians in the energy sector will need to be skilled in working with AI tools and data applications going into the future.

   

2. Scientific publications

1. A probabilistic model for real-time quantification of building energy flexibility. The authors of this paper developed an analytical solution to directly quantify the energy flexibility that can be provided by individual buildings. They then enhanced this with probabilistic techniques and sampling-based uncertainty analysis to determine the flexibility distribution of a cluster of buildings.

   What I’m thinking: Though the study looks promising, it depends on thermal parameters from buildings, that are often hard to access. One solution could be to enhance the model with algorithms that regularly analyze consumption data to estimate and update these parameters. It would be exciting to see this tested in a real-world pilot.

3. Reimagine Energy publications

I was on my annual leave last month, so I didn’t get a chance to write a Reimagine Energy post. But I did have time to read, so here are three Substack posts I loved: a great explanation of negative electricity prices in Europe, a deep dive into using clustering techniques to find patterns in energy consumption data, and a sobering look at the generative AI landscape by music historian Ted Gioia.

The reasons for negative prices

Decoding Building Energy Patterns

Google Thinks Beethoven Looks Like Mr. Bean

4. AI in Energy job board

This space is dedicated to job posts in the sector that caught my attention during the last month. I have no affiliation with any of them, I’m just looking to help readers connect with relevant jobs in the market.

1. Senior AI Engineer at Enersee

2. International PhD Mines Paris/INESC in AI & Energy

3. AI Consultant at Energy Systems Catapult

4. PhD in Solar Forecasting and Future Sustainable Power Systems at University of Nottingham

Conclusion

With so much going on in the sector it’s not easy to follow everything. If you know of anything relevant that should be included in Currents—such as job posts, scientific articles, or industry events—please reply to this email or reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’ll be happy to consider them for inclusion!

1. https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating