Co-Founder and CEO of DataGlen
A Vanguard unleashing limitless opportunities with robust DER management
Accelerated penetration of internet all over the world is giving shape to an umbrella of robust network. Bridging smart devices capable of inter-communication across a global network, Internet of Things (IOT) is hailed by the evolutionary landscape of technology as the next frontier.
This technology has been revolutionizing 'the ways of the world'; carving its path towards genesis of a new era. A wide array of innovation is leveraging this smart network powered technology to impact nearly every aspect of a human life – management of finances, trade, transport, health and more.
Not to mention, this wave of transformation has enveloped several less charted territories that carry utmost significance towards molding the future of the world.
DataGlen Technologies Private Limited, an innovative and leading edge Cleantech IOT startup intends to address one such pressing issue faced all over the world. DataGlen envisions dispersal of clean, reliable and economical energy to the whole mankind deploying futuristic solutions built on advanced technology.
The firm provides the IoT platform, Operating System and Devices for various applications including Solar Plant Asset Management, Demand Response, Energy Forecasting and other Energy Services.
Within a short span of time, DataGlen has empowered more than twenty-five clients including some of the top Solar Installers, EPC's and IPP's in India with maximum Return on Investments through high performance solar monitoring. Besides, two of the major global utilities from Australia and Europe are soon to secure spots in the company's rich clientele.
Incorporated in 2015, DataGlen is the brainchild of Deva P. Seetharam, Tanuja Ganu and Sunil Ghai – three technocrats who have their profound expertise rooted in working with some of the globally renowned organizations including IBM Research India.
Deva P. Seetharam, who has been leading the firm as the Chief Executive Officer; has founded and led the Smarter Energy Systems group during his stint with IBM.
The profound insights that the founders gained in this duration helped them to identify the complexities surrounding management of distributed energy resources assets and motivated themto work towards innovating sustainable solutions.
In a chat with The CEO Magazine, Deva speaks about the targeted business problem, "Managing distributed energy resources (DER) assets such as Solar or Wind is complex on account of variability in their generation that is affected by fluctuations in weather. Often, such resources are remotely located; moreover, well-trained site engineers are hard to find.
The investors need a quality mechanism through which they monitor, manage and ensure they get maximum return on the investments. Furthermore, DER is becoming prevalent across the world changing the traditional business model of Utilities with centralized generation, transmission and distribution.
The retailers must deal and service customers who produce and/or consume locally (called prosumers), with variable demand pattern while ensuring reliable power supply, robust and safe grid operations. DataGlen's solutions are aimed at efficient management of DER enabling them with complete transparency."
DataGlen's portfolio of leading-edge IoT Platform products and applications currently delivers two unique solutions for DER – SunDash and DERitos. It covers suite of services for Demand Response, Solar, Storage and Load optimization. Let's catch up with the exclusivity of these solutions:-
SunDash – This highly sophisticated IoT application leverages Artificial Intelligence to manage and improve performance of solar plants. The system is geared to deliver real-time and actionable business insights for optimal and smooth operations of processes.
It also provides energy forecasting services for energy planning and to comply with the grid regulations being implemented across India. The revolutionary product has been deployed at more than 225 sites in India, both in rooftop and utility-scale installations, with capacities ranging from 15kWp to 50MWp and total capacity exceeding 250MW.
With Sundash, DataGlen processes more than 17 million solar data points every day and has successfully increased solar energy generation by about 7.5 million units during the last year.
DERitos or iOS for Distributed Energy Resources is a very inventive and smart operating system developed for management of DER. The system can enable various demand side applications such as demand-response, distributed-generation and storage management without impacting the grid reliability and equipment performance while respecting consumers' preferences for equipment usage and revenue generation.
DataGlen's products are developed with a sui generis approach and set themselves apart from others in two perspectives – technology architecture and value to the clients. On the technology platform, the product boasts a robust architecture.
It is empowered to achieve rapid scalability to efficiently collect and process terabytes of data to produce results faster. "Our proprietary machine learning algorithms are built by a highly talented team with rich experience in energy sector and several patents under their hood", shares Deva.
Apprising us of DataGlen's success mantra, he briefs, "We have a SaaS (Software as a Service) based business model, with no myriad charges at the time of installation or for support. It is modular and has built-in flexibility to customize as per the client need.
Our features-cost mix is superior to what the competition provides, with a value potential of 10x return on investment. It is also a hardware agnostic solution, therefore, provides unbiased analytics, unlike those provided by power electronics vendors.
Our simpler pricing structure, flexibility to customize the product, and superior performance makes a unique combination compared to others."
DataGlen's strict adherence to innovation coupledwith the company's unique approach towards addressing global challenges with robust solutions promises its leadership in global IOT landscape. The firm has been focusing on Renewables sector in its initial stage.
With extraordinary capabilities in its bag, it is poised to grow leaps and bounds in near future. "As our platform technology architecture stack is horizontal, we are endowed with the potential to expand across diverse industry verticals.
However, Energy will remain our primary concern. Our dynamic portfolio will continue to focus on such services towards positioning ourselves as one of the global market players in this space."
The groundbreaking concept was one of the five innovative start-ups showcased before British Prime Minister, Theresa May in 2016.
One of the 'Top Twelve Energy Startups in the World' by Free Electrons, a Global Energy Accelerator in partnership with 8 top innovative utilities across the world.
Inter Stellar award in the 2nd cohort(April to August 2017) of the Cisco Launchpad Initiative
Membership of Intel IoT Solutions Alliance
One of the top 100 innovative technology startups in 'Elevate 100', an initiative by Government of Karnataka, in 2017
Featured as one among the 'Top 30 Tech startups for 2017' by Your Story
Deva P. Seetharam – Cofounder & Chief Executive Officer @ DataGlen is a serial entrepreneur and holds an MS from MIT Media Laboratory and a BS from Bharathiyar University.He founded and led the Smarter Energy Systems group at IBM Research India.
Prior to joining IBM, Deva led the pervasive media research initiatives for France Telecom Research in Boston. He has published more than 50 papers in elite research conferences and has 12 US patents to his credit.
Tanuja Ganu – Co-Founder and CTO @ DataGlen has been recognized as MIT Technology Review's Innovator under 35 (MITTR 35) in 2014. She has also served on the judges committee for MIT TR35 2015, 2016and 2017. She has won IBM Eminence and Excellence award and IBM first invention plateau award.
Her work was covered by top technical media (IEEESpectrum, MIT Technology Review, IBM Research blog and Innovation 26X26: 26innovations by 26 IBM women). She has published more than 20 scientific publications andhas 4 granted US patents
Sunil Ghai – Chief Product Officer (CPO) @ DataGlenSunil is an expert in system engineering and machine learning. He was previously employedwith IBM Research from Oct 2010 to Jan 2015 where he focused on energy management in commercial buildings. He has published more than 10 research papers in renowned journals and filed 2 USpatents.
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