During a press breakfast at Intersolar NA this year, I was impressed by JLM Energy’s approach to renewable energy and storage. I asked the company’s CEO and founder Farid Dibachi to share more. Here’s why JLM Energy may be a good choice for your residential, up through utility solar customers.
SPW: What have you been able to bring into solar from your past experience? What excites you the most about working in solar?
Dibachi: The way electricity is produced and distributed has not seen transformational change in 130 years, but now we are at the tipping point. As a technology entrepreneur, my focus is to find practical solutions to energy challenges. I’ve had successful technology companies before so that’s been helpful in developing this product.
I am passionate about changing the way consumers acquire and use energy and creating choice and control. We create software that helps our customers easily understand their energy use and make better choices that result in savings. Our culture of innovation and the passionate, talented team of technologists I work with is what motivates me on a daily basis.
SPW: What kinds of markets/applications is JML’s solar + storage offering ideal for?
Dibachi: JLM Energy sees three market segments for its products: Residential, enterprise and utilities.
Home: Batteries are starting to make sense in states where the rules are changing on solar customers and in locations where “time of use” charges are becoming more common. We expect to see “time of use” charges infiltrate the market in the next year or two.
Enterprise: Businesses have always faced demand charges. Combining storage with renewables can virtually eliminate demand charges. Return on investment is often under five years, especially when buyers can take advantage of federal tax credits and state rebates such as SGIP in California.
Utilities: As more distributed energy resources come online, utilities need the behind the meter visibility into the users domain. We license our software stack for utilities, solar distributors, consultants and others, including competitors they may want to white label it.
SPW: What differentiates JML’s offering for consumers? For solar installers?
Dibachi: For residential consumers, our Energizr 200 is the first product on the market to optimally control solar, storage and energy efficiency. It works in harmony with solar power and the grid. Our smart energy management software, Measurz, is the most advanced on the market. It optimizes power use based on user habits and a pre-set budget.
Homeowners and businesses can combine solar and storage with a smart energy management system to lower electric bills by relying on stored energy during peak times.
At JLM, we design our own battery management system. Our technology has an overall efficiency rate of 87%. That is about 20% higher than any other product on the market. We can send solar energy directly into the home or back to the grid without cycling through the batteries. This extends battery life.
Solar installers can use our home energy ecosystem to lower the cost of acquiring customers. By purchasing a JLM Energy software license, solar companies can add prospects to their fleet, watch the consumers use patterns and go back with a much more tailored proposal that makes economic sense to the customer. The software ecosystem, including the Lyric smart thermostat by Honeywell can be purchased installed without solar or storage. It is a tool to help consumers better understand their energy consumption and adjust behaviors accordingly.
SPW: Tell us more about the Measurz software.
Dibachi: Measurz is the main configuration and monitoring interface for the entire home energy ecosystem. The ecosystem includes, solar, batteries, the Honeywell Lyric smart thermostat and appliance control applications. First Measurz software analyzes user habits to make efficiency recommendations. Once set up is completed, the system monitors, reports and visualizes battery charge and energy flow.
The consumer-friendly mobile app enables remote control of appliances including HVAC systems, smart thermostats and pool pumps that often cost the most to run. Measurz tracks real-time energy consumption to create efficiencies that can be monitored from home or remotely. This leads to more informed energy use decisions and immediate cost savings.
For Enterprise and Utility users Measurz has all of the above capability and more. As organizations strive to meet aggressive benchmarks for adopting more distributed energy resources (DERs), Measurz provides a streamlined path from development to implementation. It is an integrated, multi-tier software that sits on the premises and provides real-time control even when the Internet is down. When connected to the server it provides visibility to any site in the world so it is ideal for managing a fleet of buildings. Users can view- what is going on at an individual location and in aggregate.
SPW: Why does JLM choose to use Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries?
Dibachi: We use Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries which are inherently safer (than more common lithium ion) due to their thermal and structural stability. LiFePO4 batteries will last more than 10 years.
Farid Dibachi is co-founder and CEO of JLM Energy based in Rocklin, California. Farid holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
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