Free Electrons, a global acceleration program focused on energy startups in scale-up stage in international markets, is accepting applications until January 31, 2020. The initiative, which is in its fourth edition, aims to introduce the most promising startups in the power sector worldwide to the 10 leading utilities in this industry. In all, the program will select 30 companies that will be granted the opportunity to present their ideas at a bootcamp that will take place in March 2020 in Singapore, and only 15 will go through to the next round.

As in the previous three years, the program will be divided into three modules. The first module will take place in June, in Sydney, Australia; the second will take place for the first time in São Paulo in September; and the last one will be in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where the great winner will be announced and receive the prize of 200 thousand US dollars.

The program has members such as EDP, American Electric Power (USA), AusNet Services (Australia), CLP (Hong Kong), DEWA (Dubai), ESB (Ireland), innogy (Germany), Origin Energy (Australia), SP Group (Singapore) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japan). Free Electrons is supported by Beta-i (Portugal). Each year, Free Electrons receives around 500 applications from startups from all continents, which propose to create a pilot project in the areas of mobility, clean energy, smart grids, scanning and customer support services. In the last three editions, more than 1,000 startups from 65 countries have signed up and about $ 11 million has been invested by the companies involved. In this year’s edition alone, 59 pilot projects have been created.

Applications can be submitted until January 31st at the websitehttps://freeelectrons.org/.

Largest global acceleration program in the power sector

Free Electrons is known as the world’s most relevant acceleration program in the energy industry and allows mature industry startups to access partners worldwide which can help them expand into new markets. The 10 utilities that are part of the program together have about 80 million customers and are present in over 40 countries.

In 2019, the award for best startup was awarded to Ev.energy. The company is developing pilot projects focused on customer solution with AEP (USA), innogy (Germany) and ESB (Ireland). The previous three editions of Free Electrons generated a total of about $ 10 million in contracts between startups and 10 utilities. In three editions, the program has received applications from more than 1,400 startups from 75 countries.

Examples of those include: Loqr, an authentication security provider that received investment from EDP Ventures in Portugal; Kisensum, a provider of fleet management software acquired by ChargePoint (USA); and Fresh Energy, which also became part of Germany’s Innogy innovation hub because of the smart meter for domestic customers of major electricity providers.

About EDP Brazil

With over 20 years of experience, EDP is one of the largest private companies in the electricity sector operating throughout the value chain. The Company, which has over 10,000 direct and outsourced employees, operates in Electrical Power Generation, Distribution, Transmission, Trading and Energy Services. It has six hydroelectric unit and one thermoelectric generation, and serves about 3.5 million customers through its Distributors in São Paulo and Espírito Santo states. Recently, EDP became CELESC’s main shareholder in Santa Catarina state. In Brazil, it is a reference in areas such as Innovation, Governance and Sustainability, having been in the B3 Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE) for 14 consecutive years.