‘Smart’ energy company to double workforce in Limerick

Electricity Exchange, one of the leading providers of smart grid technology and virtual power plant service, is to more than double its workforce in Limerick by the end of this year.

The Company, which is 50% owned by Bord na Móna, operates a virtual power plant from its 24-hour operations centre at the National Technology Park in Plassey.

It currently employs 24 people but that is set to increase to 60 by the end of this year.

Electricity Exchange offers a virtual power plant service, which pays large electricity consumers to make excess energy available to the grid when its required. The ground-breaking hardware and software is capable of remotely reducing electricity demand on the sites of hundreds of large electricity consumers, either by turning on existing back-up generators or by shutting down non-essential processes for short periods, to make their power available to other users on the electricity system.

”This announcement is another clear step in the success story that is Electricity Exchange. Since our foundation in 2014, we have more than doubled both employee numbers and amount of power we offer the grid year-on-year and 2018 will be no different. We are placing a strong focus on putting processes and structures in place that will allow us to expand rapidly in an effective manner,” said Dr Paddy Finn, of Electricity Exchange.

“Due to the speed in which we have become the leading player in the Irish market, already generating as much electricity as Ardnacrusha powerstation and growing, we are now focused on expanding to international markets,” he added.

Speaking at the opening of the new offices which will accommodate the increased workforce, Tom Donnellan, chief executive of Bord na Móna said: “In 2016, Bord na Móna, a pillar in Ireland’s energy industry, identified Electricity Exchange as an emerging leader in the smart grid technology space. We came on board as a 50% partner in 2016 and the growth since that time has been very impressive. This is an exciting time for all of us associated with Electricity Exchange.”

The company says it has already begun the process to recruit the additional software developers, sales staff and marketing personnel to support the rapid growth of the business.