How Gridmates came into my mind
About two years ago, while watching a special TV news report in my homeland of Greece, I could not believe what I was seeing. The report showed a young family in my neighborhood living in a dark and cold home because they could afford to pay for energy. The man looked stressed and the woman was crying.
With a little research, I learned that energy poverty is a global problem, even in economically well-developed countries. People suffering from energy poverty cannot afford to cool or heat their homes, cook for their children, conveniently wash clothes or even read or study at night. They have to make difficult decisions that most of us never and shouldn’t have to face – do they put food on the table or save money to keep the lights on and their house or apartment a safe temperature?
Because it occurs behind the walls of people’s homes, energy poverty is largely hidden but it’s more common that you might think. In the United States, approximately 48 million people are at or below the poverty line and at risk to suffer from energy poverty. More than 4.6 million of those people are in Texas with nearly 170,000 of them in Austin where I now live. The sad reality is that many of our neighbors – often people within a few miles from us -- are literally living in the dark. Those who can afford some level of electricity live with the constant threat of having their service disconnected when unforeseen financial needs arise.
As a serial entrepreneur and academic in electrical engineering and smart grids, I knew there had to be a solution. With people the world over crowdsourcing so many types of things – funding for new companies and nonprofits, knowledge for online encyclopedias, taxi services and even renting out their homes, why not crowdsource energy, too? Why not leverage Internet technologies to create a platform where people can give energy to anyone or any organization, anywhere and anytime? So, in 2014, I launched Gridmates, the world's first cloud platform that enables the giving of energy.
Using the Gridmates platform is simple, requiring only an Internet connection and a few clicks on a smart phone or computer. “Donors” can get tax credits for donating energy to people who need assistance. Corporations and charitable organizations, too, can share electricity and/or create community challenges to engage their employees and constituents, respectively. Utilities can use the platform to enhance existing assistance programs, reducing both the need to discontinue service and write off unpaid bills.
So I took the decision to move to United States, from Greece, and create a social forprofit company that will give the power to individuals to energize people’s lives.
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