Oxford University's technology transfer arm, Isis Innovation, has announced that a new spin-out company has been formed based on technology developed at the university.
The company, Intelligent Sustainable Energy (ISE), has received funding from Navetas Energy Management to develop a smart meter that will allow households to monitor which individual appliances are consuming electricity in real time and over time, delivering the data in a form most suited to individual consumers, such as a PC or a mobile phone.
The technology was developed by Dr Malcolm McCulloch and his colleague Jim Donaldson in Oxford’s department of engineering. McCulloch explained that the technology is designed to identify both short- and long-term energy savings by providing information about specific appliances in a building.
He said: 'If the amount of electricity your washing machine uses increases considerably, this might indicate that it will be more cost-effective to replace it.
'If there’s a spike in the amount used by the fridge, maybe the door has been left open.'
A prototype ISE smart meter has been successfully tested at Oxford University. ISE now plans to undertake further trials and refine the design and to offer licenses where appropriate to commercial partners in key territories.
It anticipates that the intelligent smart meter will be on the market by 2010.
ISE’s formation brings the number of University of Oxford spin-outs to 70.
The project had previously received funding for prototyping from Oxford’s University Challenge Seed Fund.
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