Vancouver-based energy intelligence company Pulse Energy has signed a multi-million dollar three-year partnership with British Gas.
The deal with the British gas and power utility will add 600,000 businesses to Pulse Energy's customer-base, the company said. Pulse has not disclosed how much the agreement is worth.
Pulse Energy CEO David Helliwell was joined by B.C. Minister of Technology Andrew Wilkinson at Pulse's offices in downtown Vancouver to formally announce the partnership April 15.
Founded as a small startup in 2006, Pulse Energy saw initial growth through government programs such as the B.C. Innovative Clean Energy Fund and the National Research Council of Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program.
Wilkinson said the move would be good for the industry, citing a report last week that revealed B.C.'s technology sector to be at an all-time high, with about $23 billion in revenue in 2012, making up about 8% of the province's economy.
He classified Pulse as a clean-tech company, a tech subsector that employs 6,400 people across 200 companies and brings in about $2 billion in revenue.
“It's now bigger than the mining, forestry, and petroleum industries combined,” Wilkinson said of B.C.’s technology industry.
“A company like Pulse Energy could go anywhere, but they choose to be here because it's the right business environment, we've got the right talent pool, and they can build up markets from here.”
“The main goal of British Gas' business is to make it easier for businesses in the (United Kingdom) to manage their energy use,” said Greg Dennis, a sales engineer at Pulse Energy. “They have a wealth of customer data to use and they've partnered up with Pulse to be able to deliver value from that data.
“The utility environment in the U.K. is deregulated. If you're a customer, you're able to end your contract and go get your energy from a different provider, so we're engaging customers and making them feel like their utility has something more to offer for them than just the bill. They actually receive personalized communication through a number of channels.”
Pulse will use British Gas' data to provide customer with a breakdown of where they're using energy the most, as well as recommendations on how to use energy more efficiently.
