Qmulus wins first Innovate Fort Collins competition
Thursday September 29, 2016
FORT COLLINS -- Qmulus, a Fort Collins-based startup company, was announced winner of the first Innovate Fort Collins competition focused on solving the problem of meeting the increasing electric demand of electric vehicle owners to charge their vehicles and the additional pressure that puts on the city's electric grid.
The competition was jointly sponsored by the City of Fort Collins, Colorado State University, and Innosphere, Colorado’s leading technology incubator. The technology competition focused on solving electric vehicle (EV) charging challenges as more people buy electric vehicles, increasing pressure on the the electric grid.
Qmulus was announced the winner Wednesday at Colorado State University’s 21st Century Energy Transition Symposium. Qmulus' adapter connects the electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) and a plug-in electric vehicle (PEV).
Competition applications were collected this summer from companies and entrepreneurs that focused on data acquisition from vehicles, installed metering or monitoring, or advanced meter data.
“Innovate Fort Collins is specifically designed to help innovators bring relevant technologies to market that are going to help communities like Fort Collins meet its climate action goals,” said Mike Freeman, Innosphere CEO.
In future Innovate Fort Collins competitions, Freeman said Innosphere will continue to help the City with technology scouting to find new innovation to meet its Road to 2020 goals concerning water, buildings, mobility solutions, energy and waste reduction.
As competition winner, Qmulus will be able to test and demonstrate the technology solution within the Fort Collins Utilities electric grid. Qmulus’ adapter gives users with low-end charger stations the ability to network their charge sessions without going to the expense of upgrading their EVSE.
“The adapter will allow conversion of a dumb station to a smart station at a substantially lower cost than replacing the EVSE,” said Matthew Raymond, Qmulus co-founder.
“The adapter will allow residents, communities, workplaces, fleets, multi-unit dwellings, retailers and utilities to gain more detailed information about PEV charging behavior. Utilities can also use the adapter for load control and metering.”
Raymond accepted the award at the event and gave a presentation on why Qmulus’ emerging technology is ideal for a test and demonstration project with City of Fort Collins utilities.
The competition began with Innosphere collaborating with the City of Fort Collins to help implement the goals of the City of Fort Collins’ Road to 2020 plan. The Road to 2020 plan sets new goals to reduce carbon emissions 20 percent below 2005 levels in 2020 and 80 percent by 2030, with a desire to be carbon neutral by 2050.
The theme of this first competition was focused on electric vehicles because the City wanted to better understand and quantify future mass electric vehicle charging patterns in Fort Collins. “This will help us manage our core utilities distribution system while making progress toward a carbon-neutral City,” said Jackie Kozak Thiel, chief sustainability officer for the City of Fort Collins.
"We are excited to work with the City of Fort Collins and Innosphere on this challenge," said Maury Dobbie, assistant director of CSU's Center for the New Energy Economy and symposium chair. "Our 6th annual symposium is all about finding solutions related to the energy transition of our country, and one of the ways we’re doing that is through collaboration with industry and government."
For more information about the City of Fort Collins’ implementation of the Road to 2020, go to www.fcgov.com/climateaction.