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Ohmconnect

Energy · Oakland, United States · Founded 2013

OhmConnect operates as a virtual power plant, incentivizing residential energy consumers to reduce electricity usage during peak demand periods. Founded in 2014 by Matt Duesterberg, Curtis Tongue, and Cadir Lee, the company emerged from a desire to democratize energy markets and address climate change. The founders combined their respective backgrounds in energy markets, consumer marketing, and technology to create the platform. Duesterberg's experience trading electricity futures and in data science at Oracle-acquired DataRaker revealed the potential in residential smart meter data. Tongue's background is in marketing and brand building, while Lee's expertise is in technology. The company's core business revolves around demand response, where it aggregates the energy savings of thousands of households and sells these reductions back to the grid. This business model is a direct alternative to firing up expensive and inefficient "peaker" power plants, which utilities would otherwise rely on to meet high demand. OhmConnect makes money by participating in energy market auctions, bidding the collective energy reduction of its users as a reliable resource. The company generally aims for an 80/20 revenue split, passing the majority of the payments from the energy market to its users. The service is free for residential customers of major utilities in California, New York, and Texas. The service notifies users via text or email of upcoming high-demand periods, called "OhmHours," typically lasting for about an hour. Users earn points, which can be converted to cash, gift cards, or used in a rewards marketplace, by reducing their consumption below a calculated baseline. To maximize savings and earnings, the platform integrates with smart home devices like thermostats and smart plugs. These devices can be automated to power down during OhmHours, making participation seamless for the user. A significant milestone was a $100 million investment from Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) in 2020, which included financing to develop North America's largest distributed clean power plant. In early 2024, OhmConnect merged with Google's Nest Renew service to form a new entity called Renew Home, with SIP investing an additional $100 million to expand their combined services. Keywords: demand response, energy management, virtual power plant, smart grid, residential energy, energy conservation, smart home integration, clean energy, electricity markets, energy rewards