LaunchVT 2017 Finalist
Packetized Energy

Describe your business. 

Packetized Energy designs and deploys human-friendly systems for coordinating distributed energy resources found in homes and small businesses, including water heaters, EV chargers, and battery storage systems. This coordination enables the grid to reliably integrate renewable energy and helps end users to make smarter use of electricity.

Tell us about your team - why are you the right people for this venture? 

The three co-founders (Almassalkhi, Frolik, Hines) are all faculty members in the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Vermont (UVM) and are co-inventors of the core technology that we are commercializing, known as packetized energy management (PEM).  Relative to competing approaches for coordinating electricity use, PEM is unique in that it is highly-decentralized, reacts in real-time to varying grid conditions, is not invasive on a customer’s privacy, and maintains the quality of service that customers expect.  Our UVM team was one of only twelve to receive funding from the US Department of Energy's ARPA-E NODES program.  ARPA-E’s $1.7M investment in the PEM technology is evidence of the enormous potential of this team to bring innovative solutions to the rapidly changing electricity industry. Our team is rounded out with a Chief Engineer (Giroux) whose background includes building award-winning electric racecars while at UVM and working on next generation battery and sensing systems for Fortune 50 companies.

Why Vermont? 

Vermont is rapidly emerging as a global leader in clean energy innovation. Vermont’s electric utilities are recognized for their significant investments in Smart Grid technology and renewable energy resources, and a growing number of energy innovators are locating in Vermont. The State has established a nation-leading  target of meeting 90% of its energy needs from renewable sources, and PEM is well positioned to facilitate this goal. Maintaining our strong connections to UVM will enable Packetized Energy to rapidly test and build on new ideas as they emerge from the ongoing research. Together these traits make Vermont the perfect place for our company to be based.

Why should you win LaunchVT? 

Integrating renewable energy in a way that does not put electricity reliability at risk is a global challenge. We thus expect Packetized Energy to have global reach.  As we grow to meet this demand, we will be able to provide good jobs for current and future Vermonters wishing to participate in the clean energy sector.  Attracting and retaining talent is thus paramount to our growth strategy, aligning us well with LaunchVT’s efforts to build innovation in Vermont. Packetized Energy has already benefited substantially from guidance from LaunchVT’s partners. Winning LaunchVT will provide access to the additional guidance needed to accelerate our growth and enable us to solve clean energy problems on an international scale.