Finalist | Greenbird (Norway): Software for the digital power utility

CODE_n15 Finalist Greenbird from Norway is offering power utility companies the application Metercloud to provide ways to integrate smart metering and smart grids into existing business applications – at a reduced cost. This allows Greenbird and its integration service Metercloud to enable power utility companies to become digital. We talked to Thorsten Heller, CEO of Greenbird, about the details.

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Where did your idea for the company come from?

Thorsten Heller, Greenbird: The founders of Greenbird had many years of experience as integration architects and integration developers for the biggest power utilities in the Nordics. Experience from these companies revealed that most utility companies start from scratch when they develop and implement integrations for their business applications. This approach translates into high-risk projects with regard to costs and time to market. Years of experience from the utilities industry also showed that the business processes required for implementing smart metering and smart grid technologies are very similar among utility companies. These findings were the foundation for establishing Greenbird and our core service Metercloud – a big data integration service for smart metering, smart grids and the Internet of Things.

For which kind of audience is your product or service intended and what problem is it solving?

Thorsten Heller, Greenbird: Metercloud is targeting power utility companies that deploy smart metering and smart grid technologies. Utilities are now entering their biggest transformation ever. Advanced sensors at all levels in the grid will provide a foundation for digital power utilities. Integrating business applications will be crucial to turning metering data into assets. Traditional integration approaches involved custom projects with huge upfront costs and a low degree of reuse. Metercloud offers out-of-the-box support for exchanging smart metering data between business applications. A layered architecture with orchestrations and connectors safeguards interoperability with the most common business applications for utilities. It is delivered as a service, ready to use and flexible. It will enable digital power utilities to embrace and integrate new and innovative applications to generate value. From day one.

The industry is experiencing a major transformation. While experts are working on products for the smart grid, the reasons behind the growth in new solutions are sometimes too complex to understand for the layman. If you had to break it down into a simple statement: how does the consumer ultimately benefit from Greenbird?

Thorsten Heller, Greenbird: In the future you will expect to be able to charge your electric vehicle at an affordable price, to rely on renewable energy, to generate and sell power from your rooftop solar cells, and to optimize your consumption with smart home technologies. You will need a digital power utility to do this. Greenbird and our integration service Metercloud enables digital power utilities.

See Greenbird live on the CODE_n Stage on Tuesday, 17.03.2015.