The global energy ecosystem is going through rapid change as consumers and producers pursue a more sustainable and flexible future, enabled, in part by digital technologies. Iprova has worked on campaigns spanning sustainability, distributed energy networks and home energy management.
Iprova has worked with some of the world’s best known energy providers, including EDF, the world’s third largest electricity provider, and industrial equipment companies in areas such as power generation, transmission and renewable energy.
Our work
Iprova worked with an energy company to create inventions related to aspects of smart grid technology. Following the success of this campaign, we have continued working with this company, inventing across many energy areas including control systems for small modular nuclear reactors and energy efficient agri-tech solutions. Patents based on our inventions in the energy and transportation areas are cited by companies including IBM, Toyota, Google and Microsoft.
Example invention
One invention delivered by Iprova to an industrial energy equipment provider reduces the Total Cost of Ownership of very large electric vehicles, such as ships, which need large numbers of battery cells to support their low-carbon operation. This is an increasingly important topic as some parts of the world’s oceans are restricted to vessels able to use only electric power for environmentally-sensitive parts of their voyage.
The invention controls the electrical loading of cells which make up a ship’s battery, such that those which are easiest to access for replacement are loaded more highly than those which are in more inaccessible areas. As a result the cells which are most likely to require replacement more frequently are the ones which are easiest and cheapest to access.
Patent: US9819056 (B2) Method for operating a rechargeable battery