Ahead of our hybrid meetup with Kaluza, we spoke to Head of Engineering Jaime Thompson about their products and how to practice sustainable software engineering.
Kaluza is the leading intelligent energy platform powering the future of energy. From revolutionising billing to smart electric vehicle charging, Kaluza’s SaaS technology is empowering some of the biggest energy suppliers to better serve millions of customers. Its live data platform transforms supplier operations, reducing cost to serve and boosting customer engagement. Powered by Kaluza, suppliers can invest in innovating for tomorrow’s customers and drive decarbonisation with smart, low carbon technologies that not only reduce energy bills, but lay the foundations for a more flexible energy system.
To join us in person or to watch live or later on Weds 21st September, please RSVP here: https://www.meetup.com/greentech-south-west/events/287781285/
Can you tell us more about Kaluza and the journey so far?
Jaime: Energy systems around the world are having to undergo a huge transformation in order to prioritise decarbonisation and affordability, while simultaneously moving the needle on the climate crisis.
Kaluza is the intelligent energy platform enabling the world’s largest energy companies to lead the way in the energy transition. From revolutionising energy retail operations to smart electric vehicle charging, our software is empowering energy suppliers to deliver market-leading experiences for their customers and drive decarbonisation.
Launching in 2019, we’ve grown rapidly to over 485 employees across the UK, Portugal and the US. We pride ourselves on technical excellence and building a platform that has a real, positive impact in a fast-evolving industry.
What are the key points and drivers behind the Mission Transition sustainability pledge?
Jaime: As a technology company born to enable cheaper, greener and simpler energy, Kaluza is dedicated to:
1. Doing our part by becoming a carbon negative company by 2030, and
2. Building the platform that energy retailers need to transform their businesses and accelerate progress towards a net-zero world for all.
Mission Transition was born from these commitments. It is our business strategy, and our blueprint for transforming and decarbonising energy retail.
In Chapter One, we outline our vision to leverage the power of technology to transform energy retail and engage customers across the globe. In Chapter Two, we provide a detailed plan around how we will accelerate the energy transition for our clients, while meeting our 2030 carbon negative target. Our goal is to:
- Reduce our clients’ cost-to-serve by 50%,
- Reach 100 million people with opportunities to manage their energy use, and
- Enable the avoidance of 10 million tonnes of CO2e emissions by 2030.
Read more about Mission Transition, and dive into Chapters One and Two here.
What do Kaluza hope to achieve with their products?
Jaime: Kaluza has two core offerings: Kaluza Energy Retail and Kaluza Flex.
Kaluza Energy Retail brings advanced automation and agility to energy retailers, providing the tools they need to transform their operating systems, reduce operational costs, improve efficiency, adapt to changing regulations and lead in the energy transition. Read more about Kaluza Energy Retail here.
Kaluza Flex is Kaluza’s world-leading demand response product. By intelligently charging millions of smart home devices and enabling agile innovation of green propositions, Kaluza Flex mobilises customers in the energy transition by making decarbonisation simple and rewarding.
Kaluza Flex is also powering the world’s first and largest domestic rollout of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, showcasing how this innovation can be used as a pivotal component of the robust, zero-carbon energy system of the future.
A total of 330 V2G devices have been installed across the UK, and over 3 million free miles made available to customers who exported energy back to the grid during peak times. This project has shown that V2G has the potential to save £3.5bn per year on grid infrastructure reinforcement, and that customers can earn an average of £420 to as much as £800 per year without needing to do anything except keep their cars plugged in when they are not in use.
Read more about Kaluza Flex here.
We know that sustainable software engineering is a big focus for Kaluza, can you tell us a little about how you practice this?
Jaime: Kaluza is focused on embedding sustainable engineering practices into our everyday product development lifecycles.
To support this, we have developed sets of internal recommendations and best practices which ensure that Kaluza employees have visibility of their own impact on our carbon negative goals on a daily basis. They also provide insight into Kaluza’s carbon emissions, and a mechanism that supports their reduction, and innovation around our negative carbon goals.
We have developed an internal carbon footprint tool, which leverages Google Cloud data, to track the impact of our cloud usage and support our goal of being carbon negative by 2030. Read more about how we’re using Google emissions data to power this tool, how our green development work is cutting our emissions and more in this blog.