Man-Maths.  
Noun: the process of making the hopelessly unaffordable seem unequivocally financially logical.  See also: denial, head in sand, massive balloon.

Man-maths was the concept Rod Buchanan used to illustrate how head over heart prevailed when he made the financially driven decision to change cars from a large three litre Audi to a Tesla.  This was not an easy choice as the car, known as “Harry”, was obviously part of the family.

Rod's journey from the defence industry (fast jets) through autonomous systems (R2D2) to becoming a Tesla owning Chief Technology Officer of Amp X has happened at a time of Energy Transition.  More and more households are adopting technologies such as Electric Vehicles, Heat Pumps and Airconditioning which add to the load on the distribution grid whilst only Photovoltaic Cells (Solar panels) give back.  The legacy grid is going through an unprecedented change, transitioning from a centralised generation to consumer model to one where the flow is bi-directional.  Home solar panels and battery storage can now feed the grid, resulting in a decentralised structure.  This is already happening in Australia and Rod believes that it will become the case in the Northern Hemisphere in the near future – perhaps 10-15 years.

Amp X contends that residential consumers are key to the future grid and have produced a suite of solutions that will enhance their understanding of their energy habits and allow them to manage an expanding range of smart energy devices.  Of the suite the one that will resonate with consumers is Alice, a dynamic energy assistance application for mobile telephones.

Alice allows the household consumer to set their preferences in the app and connect to their household smart energy devices.  They can then schedule those devices to operate at the optimal time, maximizing savings and providing flexibility to the grid.

Rod was keen to emphasise that the Amp X solutions were not driven by the desire to reach Net Zero but instead to give consumers who are increasingly at ease with smart technologies the means to overcome shortcomings in the current distribution grid whilst making savings to their household bills.

This is not the first time the future of the distribution grid and smart energy devices has been the subject of a Central London lecture (and it will not be the last), but it was good to see the focus on the consumer.  All power to Rod and Amp X!

Click Here to view Rod's presentation on IET TV.