Vandenborre Energy Systems

Vandenborre Energy Systems (VES) develops local energy storage solutions (in residential housing andcommercial offices) combining electrical and thermal energy (e.g. home heating). VES manufactures both building energy equipment hardware (including the proprietary Home Power Box, which is a local energy generation and storage device) and software (such as REMS-soft, which is in the early stages).

Within the SOUL-FI accelerator project, VES aims to create synergies between electricity, heating/cooling and final applications, via its proprietary web-based Residential Energy Management System “REMS-soft”. REMS-soft is an open-source,cloud-based energy management architecture, able to connect to any type of energy sensor in any building energy device. REMS-soft uses energy data from any energy sensor technology, and translates it into one open-source architecture. A common open-source architecture is essential for optimizing the energy systems at different levels: individual building, community, city, region.

Currently, energy data in Smart Cities is dispersed, non-integrated and generated by heterogeneous sensors. Sensors in building electric devices (e.g. electric meters, heat pumps, etc.) use different communication technologies, are not-compatible and non-integrated, which creates a problem for using, analyzing and optimizing energy data even at individual building level.

REMS-soft provides a modular solution, as it can be installed in one single building at a time. As the installed base (also of similar open-source software) grows, compatible energy data can be analyzed to optimize the energy system.

In Soul Fi Round A, VES intends to build a Proof of Concept architecture of REMS-soft, as well as develop a detailed business plan. VES aims to launch REMS-soft as a commercial product (licensed software) within 12 months. It aims to pursue REMS-soft further in Soul-Fi Round B and to raise EUR 500K of equity from an investor (group) in the second half of 2015.

The Team

Dr. Hugo Vandenborre: Founder and Executive Chairman of Vandenborre Energy Systems NV.

Stijn Proost: Strategy consultant and corporate finance professional.