While electricity prices are rising throughout Europe, the start-up My Energy Manager wants to achieve in France what its partners have managed to do in the United Kingdom: develop this technology among a large proportion of households.
All savings are good to do. In these times of high inflation of electricity bills and while the government has been encouraging the French for several months to reduce their energy consumption – for economic reasons but also to prevent the risk of temporary load shedding – the French start-up My Energy Manager offers an innovative device to do this. His project ? Allow individuals, businesses or even certain local authorities to have real-time monitoring of their electricity consumption. Both in terms of energy (in Kwh) and economics.
How does this system work? A sensor attached to the famous Linky meter, already present in 94% of French homes, transmits information live to a box connected remotely. Available from next January for the modest sum of… 139 euros, this object will make it possible, thanks to a screen, to follow the direct consumption of an entire household down to the penny. Device that operates without going through an application. “Studies show that you save between 10 and 25% on the electricity bill from the moment you install the sensor“, specifies the general manager of the company Antony Parsons.
Developed in the United Kingdom for a few years, the device has already been distributed there in more than 9 million units. Including a million only this year. This allows more than 20 million Britons to monitor their energy consumption in real time. Antony Parsons therefore hopes that the energy crisis, which should last a few more months, will lead to a similar diffusion in France.
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By launching his box in Lyon at the start of 2020, the entrepreneur already wanted “give back power to the French over their electricity consumption.Even before the start of the energy crisis in France and Europe. According to Antony Parsons, the crux of the problem is still not resolved: “In France, we are a little behind. We have Linky meters, but we haven’t given consumers the means to have precise information that goes back. The Linky meter remains in the closet.To better sell his innovation, Antony Parsons insists a lot on “live monitoring”: “Energy suppliers recover data from Linky, but with a delay of 12 to 24 hours, so we always have a train behind our consumption at a given time.»
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In addition to the time data, the Linky meter still makes it possible to gauge the quantity of electricity consumed thanks to a light indicator. Contacted by Le FigaroEnedis specifies that the meter nevertheless gives a follow-up of consumption every 30 minutes, even if it is necessary to wait until the next day to have a more general assessment. “There is no competition. The proposal of this start-up is complementary, it is instant data”, indicates the EDF subsidiary.
A solution certified by Enedis
If Enedis and the other energy suppliers could find an interest, by controlling and measuring, thanks to Linky, the energy consumption remotely, the users, them, complain about a rather complex system. Some even refuse to install the famous meters. A question then arises for France: have the energy suppliers given their agreement to such an installation? “We had this solution certified by Enedis, which granted us authorization to connect to the Linky meter“says Antony Parsons.
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In order to obtain this new technology in a few weeks, it will therefore be necessary to place an order on the internet. Once the assembly has been received, the green cover of the Linky box must be dismantled to place the sensor in a socket provided on the meter. To work, the latter will be connected to the screen via the Wifi of the household in question. While the My Energy Manager box can indicate anomalies in energy use, it does not differentiate between the various sources that consume the most energy. It will be up to the user himself to go and scrutinize each element on or on standby and to judge whether their uses are really necessary.