If you're a power geek, chances are you've already spent a fair amount of time looking at power maps and their fascinating export flow animations. This open source data visualization project has been around since 2016. But companies like Google and Samsung are increasingly relying on this rich data set to meet their sustainability goals and empower their users.
Currently, Electricity Maps employs 20 people and the company has been profitable for several years. However, TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the company recently raised a $5.4 million (€5 million) funding round from Transition and Revent to take things to the next level by investing in its products and business. Ta. Today, Electricity Maps is both a data visualization tool and an enterprise API for data-driven decarbonization, one without the other.
Founded by Olivier Colladi, a French-Danish entrepreneur and data scientist who previously worked at voice assistant startup Snips, Electrical Maps began with a desire to learn more about the production and consumption of electricity. “There was a press article that said Denmark was running on 100% renewable energy for a day. So I wondered if this was true and how long it would last – how many hours a day?” Colladi told TechCrunch.
Image credit: Power Map
Electrical Maps aggregates real-time data on electricity production in over 50 countries around the world. Although the company uses open data sources, employees and community contributors had to build dozens of parsers to standardize this data.
Since renewable energy depends on weather conditions (especially wind energy and solar energy), the mix of energy sources is constantly evolving. This means that the carbon intensity of the energy produced also varies depending on the time of day and current conditions. And, as you might imagine, electricity works much like tap water flowing through a vast network of pipes, so the CO2 emissions associated with the electricity you consume can vary widely.
There are also many cross-border flows of electricity, which can complicate the calculation of CO2 emissions. Some countries produce more electricity than they actually consume, while others have demand for electricity that exceeds their production capacity. Electrical Maps has designed a unique flow trace model to understand which power plants are contributing to the electricity you are currently consuming.
“We're going to handle all of this in our system using something called a flow tracing algorithm, which allows us to know where the electricity is coming from depending on where you are. You can produce it locally, or you can import it from Germany. But Germany imports it from Poland, so there is a possibility that it will be imported from Poland or elsewhere. “There is,” Corradi said.
The company also stores historical data and uses machine learning algorithms to provide 24-hour forecasts. Just as weather forecasting APIs are now a big industry, power forecasting APIs are likely to become essential business tools in the future.
Olivier Corradi, Founder and CEO of Electrical Maps (Image credit: Electrical Maps)
From carbon intensity to load shifting
Open source data visualization projects are an integral part of the company because Electricity Maps wants to gain as much consensus as possible. Peer-reviewed research is needed to calculate the life-cycle emissions of electricity generation.
The company shares all sources of emission factors. This also means that these calculation methods can evolve over time as researchers publish new studies that yield more accurate results. The community can discuss and submit potential changes to the Electricity Maps data.
When it comes to the commercial part, being able to know the carbon intensity of the electricity available at a particular location and at a particular time can be a kind of superpower.
“If we meet all of our renewable energy installation targets, we will see a world where the amount of intermittent renewable energy triples by 2030,” Colladi said.
“The good thing is that you can be flexible with this demand because it will be an electric car and you can change the charging time. It will be AI training, so you can choose when to train these big models,” he added. I did.
Image credit: Power Map
Google, one of Electrical Maps' most important customers, has partnered with a European startup to calculate the carbon intensity of the electricity that powers its data centers.
For some tasks, such as indexing the web or training new AI models, Google can use Electrical Maps data for load balancing. When the wind picks up, we'll start up additional servers. Or, when night falls in the U.S., Google could move some of its compute-intensive operations to data centers in Europe.
But Google's own customers will also benefit from the company's partnership with Electricity Maps. The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will soon require many companies to publish carbon accounting reports. Many companies rely on Google Cloud for their hosting needs, so they need data to calculate their scope 3 emissions. Carbon data is more accurate thanks to Electrical Maps' historical data.
Samsung, another client of Electrical Maps, uses the startup's data to show users the power usage and carbon footprint of their Samsung devices. In that case, this would be educating the user.
But Electricity Maps is more than just an educational tool. It acts as an information layer that determines whether it's a good time to turn on millions of electrical devices, or at least to make them have as little impact on the planet as possible. Masu.
Why would a profitable company raise money? Corradi said the funding injection is aimed at increasing Electric Map's own impact by stepping on the gas to meet the growing demand for smarter climate change tools. “The reason we brought this up is simply that the amount of renewable energy currently being deployed in the system is starting to become very large, and there is an opportunity to take advantage of the flexibility of the equipment we have in the home and industrial sectors. It means that we are starting to get it.”