Register for free to
view the full innovation profile.
BEDS uses a fleet of EV's to carry small, modular, hot-swappable batteries, using AI to predict usage and provide just-in-time Energy - adding 'Virtual Wires' to enhance the grid.
About
The global imperative to electrify everything is undeniable, yet the traditional wires-based grid, a 100-year-old approach to moving kWhs, is increasingly inadequate. Designed for centralised, one-way power flow, it creates a critical bottleneck that lacks the flexibility and resilience to support the massive energy demands of global electrification and the intermittency of renewables.
The traditional grid is a 1D network because its core element, a wire, is a single, fixed line. While thousands of these lines are laid out to cover a large area, they cannot occupy every point in that space. Energy can only travel along these specific, fixed lines. This means that it is fundamentally limited in its ability to move through three-dimensional space to meet demand. But its most critical limitation is its inability to operate in the fourth dimension: time. Because a traditional grid cannot store energy, it must transmit power instantly as it is generated, without the ability to save it for a later, more crucial moment.
This leads to the upward trajectory—the pursuit of bigger, more energy-dense batteries with longer runtimes, which will always lead to an unworkable endpoint. In a world where people and businesses operate on similar schedules, charging events will inevitably align, creating massive, instantaneous peaks in demand. There is no point along this trajectory where batteries have sufficient runtime with a sufficiently short charging downtime that can be met by a sufficient grid infrastructure. The grid is forced to be "everywhere, all at once, at maximum capacity," a state that is both economically and physically impossible to achieve with a static, wired network.
Yet, this continues to be the "traditional" wires and batteries pursuit that other companies are following the world over...
However, our solution is the downward trajectory. This seemingly counterintuitive approach leverages our Battery-based Energy Distribution System (BEDS) to create a 4D network. It can move in 3D space to where the demand is, and by storing energy in its batteries, it can also manage the dimension of time, providing power when it's needed, independent of when it was generated. Instead of creating bigger batteries, the BEDS system focuses on creating smaller, modular, scalable and agile batteries that are physically transported on a just in time basis. This approach improves as it gets closer to its ideal form – the 'Virtual Wire,' allowing the overall grid infrastructure, and the whole energy system itself, to decrease in cost and size. Our solution enhances the fixed grid and provides power at the points, capacity, and time it is needed, creating a truly sustainable solution that accelerates net zero and energy security.
Crucially, because of these 'Virtual Wires,' our system irons out the peaks and troughs that traditional, static batteries inherently create. We achieve significant storage, resilience and flexibility by dynamically managing transport and charging phases, allowing us to operate closer to 100% or 0% State of Charge (SOC) within the overall system in times of high or low energy demand. This dynamic capability removes the need for expensive, dedicated grid-based battery storage – in fact, we believe static batteries are not the future for universal energy distribution.
Our primary income is generated by selling kilowatt-hours (kWhs) directly to customers at their point of use. As a secondary, but increasingly vital, revenue stream, we provide grid services by aggregating and virtualising our distributed battery fleet.
If you know V2G is Vehicle-to-Grid and V2X is Vehicle-to-Everything, then we are X2X – Everything-to-Everything – but crucially, without the complication of relying on the individual customers to be connected when and where you need them.
Key Benefits
Key Benefits
- Reduces Grid Constraint Costs: By strategically charging batteries in locations with excess energy, our system offloads power that would otherwise constrain the grid. This directly addresses one of National Grid’s most significant financial burdens.
- Increases OHL Capacity & Unlocks Network Potential: We operate on the premise that the majority of future energy demand will be off-grid. However, these off-grid demands would traditionally only become on-grid demands when and where a customer decides to connect to charge, creating unpredictable stress points on the network. Our solution handles the electrification needs of transport, marine, off-road machinery, and any other off-grid demand, keeping this demand off the grid and freeing the network to prioritise serving large, static users. By doing so, our system not only manages these new demands but also uses its capacity to provide grid services, actively enhancing the capabilities of the grid.
- Enables Renewable Generation: Our solution facilitates the deployment of new renewable energy projects in locations with limited or no grid infrastructure. Since BEDS requires only a viable transport network to deliver and collect power, we can unlock generation potential in areas that would otherwise remain undeveloped.
- Bypasses Planning & Supply Chain Delays: Our parallel supply chain and modular design allow for immediate, scalable deployment. We can provide temporary, on-demand power and scale up from just a single technician and vehicle, taking the strain off traditional supply chains and circumventing the long lead times of planning, consenting, and construction.
- Enhances Energy Security & Resilience: BEDS introduces a vital layer of distributed redundancy to the energy system. In the event of a grid outage, our mobile fleet can continue to provide power for critical operations and support teams, ensuring resilience and reliability. We do this by geographic or time shifting of energy.
- Drives Economic & Customer Productivity: Our solution creates well-paid jobs and provides a direct, cost-effective pathway for operational companies to electrify their fleets. By delivering energy directly to the customer, we reduce their capital (we own the batteries) and operating costs (our kWh is cheaper than fossil fuels) while increasing their productivity by eliminating travel for charging.
- Provides a Phased and Intelligent Transition: We offer a phased electrification model through in-wheel hub motor hybridisation for existing fossil fuel vehicles. Furthermore, our AI and embedded harmonics technology makes every connected asset smart, allowing for the granular analysis of energy behaviours and the provision of just-in-time power.
- Makes Net-Zero an Attractive Business Case: We provide a clear and compelling business case for decarbonisation, enabling companies to meet and exceed their net-zero targets by reducing their costs and increasing their productivity, making the transition a strategic advantage rather than a burden.
Applications
Our route to market is through operational utility, construction, railway, highway companies and councils. We start by electrifying their fleets, which gives us the customer geographic density to onboard all other customer types. Our solution is applicable to all energy users across all industries and customer types, whether they are on or off the grid.
Our innovation provides flexible energy delivery to a wide range of applications, fundamentally rethinking how power is accessed and distributed. Some examples of how our system can be deployed include:
- Enabling EV Charging Infrastructure: Our swappable batteries can support EV charge posts by either supplementing an inadequate or intermittent grid connection or entirely replacing the need for grid connections at new sites. This model ensures energy is delivered efficiently and consistently. By also using charge posts as ‘grid interface posts’ to charge or discharge our batteries to or from our last mile customers, we significantly increase the utilisation rate of charge posts, pushing them from the current industry average of around 20% towards 100%.
- Just-In-Time Mobile Charging: Our system predicts the location and State of Charge (SOC) of vehicles, anticipates their parking locations, and dispatches a fleet of electric vehicles to provide a top-up charge. This gets a vehicle to its next location, then its next, maximising uptime and convenience.
- Decarbonising Existing Fleets & Hybridisation: The small, low-weight nature of our swappable batteries is key to unlocking the ability to retrofit fleets with in-wheel hub motors. This offers a crucial step on the decarbonisation journey by creating a practical bridge between fossil fuel and fully electric operations.
- Commercial Fleets and Off-Road Machinery: We can serve operational companies by replacing fossil-fuel generators and onboard power, providing just-in-time battery swaps to eliminate range anxiety and time spent at public charging points.
- Agriculture: In rural areas with limited grid capacity, we enable the electrification of farm machinery and vehicles, with in-situ battery swaps directly in the fields to boost productivity.
- Film Production: For industries that require silent, emission-free power on-location, our smaller batteries replace bulky, noisy diesel generators, reducing noise pollution and the need for long cable runs.
- Critical Backup and Resilience: For essential services and infrastructure, our modular batteries can provide resilient backup power in locations where larger static batteries are not feasible, ensuring continuity during grid outages.
- Transport Hubs: Our swappable batteries can provide backup power to essential services and can be used for temporary power needs like event signage or pop-up charging kiosks, ensuring safety and continuity.
Furthermore, we can transform substations and other key grid infrastructure into dynamic energy hubs. By deploying compact BEDS charging stations at existing substations, we can add capacity to help them cope with increased demand from electrification without large, costly upgrades.