South Africa’s Plentify, an innovative home energy management company, has announced a strategic partnership with Herholdts, one of the country’s largest distributors of solar and electrical solutions, to launch SolarBot – a first-of-its-kind intelligent controller for home solar and battery systems.
Plentify is a smart energy company that makes affordable, reliable and clean electricity a reality for everyone by fusing advanced hardware, artificial intelligence and user-centric design.
The startup’s suite of products connects to home appliances, helping them draw energy at optimal times. This ensures that appliances deliver desired services, generate major savings on energy bills through efficiency gains, and maximise energy use during clean energy periods while minimising it during constrained times.
Disrupt Africa reported in July Plentify had closed an oversubscribed funding round from top African and North American venture investors to fuel its growth in South Africa and commence its international expansion.
It has now partnered electrical, lighting and renewable energy solutions retailer Herholdts in a move that will see the latter introduce Plentify’s latest innovation, SolarBot, to homes across the country.
The product, which dramatically improves the performance of solar systems, has come at the perfect time for both solar installers who want to reinvigorate post-load shedding sales, and existing solar owners who want to get the most from their existing systems.
“The rapidly declining costs of solar panels and batteries have gotten us a lot of the way there. But that is not enough – as many solar owners are finding out, after interrogating their solar performance with more scrutiny with load shedding receding. It really matters how effectively you use your solar system. You could have 50 panels on your roof in the middle of a summer’s day, but if that energy has nowhere to go – if your battery is full and home demand low with no grid exports – it will not produce,” said Jon Kornik, CEO of Plentify.
This is the problem that SolarBot was built to solve. It analyses weather patterns, load shedding schedules and customer demand to make smarter decisions on when to charge and discharge the battery to maximise savings, while still giving homeowners backup power when they need it.
SolarBot also works with HotBot, an intelligent geyser controller, that trains the geyser to use less energy, and to favour solar over the grid. The Plentify Bots speak wirelessly to each other to heat water with extra solar that otherwise would have been wasted. Together, SolarBot and HotBot, get solar systems to produce more energy and help homeowners maximise the return on their solar investment.
Homeowners can seamlessly monitor and control their energy systems via the Plentify App, which offers real-time insights into energy consumption.
For installers, the soon-to-launch Plentify Platform will provide fleet monitoring and control from a single, intuitive dashboard, giving them the data and insights needed to offer greater value to their customers.
Herholdts, which will be bringing these products to market through its extensive network of over 200 trusted installers, views the partnership as a crucial step in bringing smarter, more innovative solutions to the local solar market.
“At Herholdts, we believe the future of solar lies in intelligent energy management. Our partnership with Plentify represents our commitment to delivering advanced technology that allows installers to provide customers with smarter, more efficient systems,” said Lukas Stoltz, technical manager at Herholdts.
