AI firm Fyld scooped both the Innovator of the Year and Best Digital Innovation awards at the Energy Innovation Centre’s (EIC) new look annual showpiece, the Energy Innovation Showcase & Awards.
Shortlisted in three categories for its digital platform – which seeks to convert paper-based risk assessments to AI-driven solutions and has grown from incubation in 2019 to a current installed base of 2,500 users and 12 active trials – Fyld took home both the Innovator of the Year and Best Digital Innovation Awards at the ceremony at Liverpool’s Titanic Hotel on 5 May.
“Working for Fyld during the pandemic, we learnt the overwhelming impact our technology has on remote teams and we are all proud of the results we have enabled for our customers during this difficult time,” operations lead Joshua Wood told the event’s media partner Utility Week Innovate prior to the awards.
Elsewhere on the night, Altitude Thinking’s Dale Colley was named Young Innovator of the Year for inventing the Aquabot, a waterborne robot equipped with multiple sensors to measure water pollution levels in real time.
Colley, who started building his first underwater water remotely operated vehicles during the pandemic, is currently finishing a masters in electrical engineering.
The award winners
Best Innovation – Gas: Enduratec for Duraseal, a way of making pipe repairs permanent and less disruptive by using compression rather than adhesion for sealing.
Best Innovation – Electricity: Allume SolShare for Rooftop Solar for Apartments, which claims to be the world’s only hardware to connect apartments to a shared rooftop solar system, potentially unlocking solar energy for the hundreds of millions of apartment residents globally.
Best Digital Innovation: Fyld, for its digital platform designed to transform paper-based risk assessments to AI-driven solutions.
Greatest Cross-Sector Potential: Tended for its life-saving positioning technology. Tended’s wearable solution monitors employees’ position and proximity to static or moving hazards with sub-10cm accuracy. Following the success of a trial with Network Rail, trials have recently begun with SSE and UK Power Networks.
Future Energy System: Ionate, whose hardware provides comprehensive power-flow monitoring and control at the lowest price point, which it claims not only unlocks the path for the DNO to DSO transition, but ultimately enables the rise of renewables and electric vehicles.
Best Collaborative Initiative: DynaCov, which has seen 10 firms – Western Power Distribution, Coventry City Council, Coventry University, Cenex, ElectReon, Hubject, Midlands Connect, National Express, Ricardo Energy & Environment, and Transport for West Midlands – come together to determine the feasibility of installing and operating EV dynamic wireless power transfer equipment in the UK using a real-world site in Coventry as a specific point of study.
Customer Focus: Oxford Product Design, which has helped vulnerable customers who would be unable to turn off their gas supply in an emergency due to restricted mobility via its Easy Assist Emergency Control Valve device to switch off gas at the meter via the push of a button.
Net Zero Impact: Wonderwall Energy, which uses AI to monitor a home’s energy efficiency to turn a house into a sustainable net zero home and saves money on bills.
Culture of Innovation: Kelvatek, whose commitment to a culture of innovation has resulted in many products and services being used across the UK DNO’s to provide solutions that drive down costs, improve reliability and security of supplies, and prepare the network for the challenges of the future.
Social Impact: Enzen for its Mission: Sustainability Programme. Enzen has created a replicable way to energise science teaching in schools in a bid to close the country’s STEM skills gap and inspire more young people to pursue careers in this sector.
Young Innovator of the Year: Dale Colley, Altitude Thinking. Colley invented waterborne robot, the Aquabot, to measure water pollution levels in real time.
Innovator of the Year: Fyld