dbusiness.com April 27, 2016
Powerley, a partnership formed by DTE Energy and Royal Oak-based Vectorform to pioneer the way homeowners manage their energy through a smartphone app, has grown its operation in the last year and is now employing nearly 20 employees. Powerley also moved into new office space in downtown Royal Oak.
The company’s technology platform connects a homeowner’s smart meter to Powerley’s Energy Bridge and smartphone mobile application to provide real-time, energy consumption information, which allows consumers to more efficiently use energy and see immediate cost savings.
To date, more than 150,000 DTE customers have downloaded the DTE Insight app to improve home energy consumption and increase their energy savings. Much of the venture’s success has been credited to the recent hiring of Manoj Kumar, who has more than two decades of experience in the high-tech space, as its CEO.
“With the successful launch of the DTE Insight app, we knew we needed the right talent and leader to realize the potential both Vectorform and DTE saw in Powerley when the joint venture was formed,” says Jason Vazzano, co-founder and CEO of Vectorform, a global design and technology firm. “Manoj brings the right blend of entrepreneurial drive, technical knowledge, and business savvy to capitalize on growing consumer demand nationwide.”
Vazzano says with the technology platform now part of Powerley’s product offerings and citing DTE’s success with the application, the company hopes to offer the platform to other utilities around the world.
He says Powerley plans to launch its secure, cloud-based platform in May, improving on the overall functionality of the platform and giving utilities a true turnkey solution that can be deployed rapidly for their customers.
Vazzano says Powerley’s entry into the home energy management market is timely. “As studies show, 60 percent of consumers want home energy management services and almost all would be interested in acquiring them if their utility provided the option,” he says.
With the exception of Powerley, most home energy management systems are not led by utilities. “This is an evolving market, and we’re on the edge of incredible growth,” Kumar says. “The home automation market has an incredibly high amount of fragmentation, coupled with unbelievable opportunity.