Centrica, British Gas’ Spanish parent company, has announced that it will be launching a new unit dedicated to the funding and ‘incubating’ of energy related tech start-ups.
Through the new Centrica Innovations unit, the company will invest £100 million over the next half decade in various projects in order to “identify, incubate and accelerate new technologies and innovations”.
Various ‘scout hubs’ will be set up in major cities including London, Cambridge, Houston, Seattle, and Tel Aviv, looking out for emerging talent and innovative start-ups working in various niches from energy supply to smart home integration technology.
Centrica group CEO, Iain Conn, explained how the new unit chimes well the governments current development focused industrial strategy.
He said: “As the UK’s leading energy supplier, we have a proven track record in harnessing new technologies for the benefit of our customers. As the government launches an Industrial Strategy with technology and R&D at its heart, Centrica is focused on delivering a smarter energy future for the UK.”
He also presented the move as one that is firmly focused on “identifying and responding to the changing needs of our customers”.
“The new venture,” he went on, “will ensure innovation is embedded across our business and will allow us to invest in the technologies that can support our customers into the future. We are already investing £1.2bn to 2020 in our Connected Home and Distributed Energy and Power businesses, helping residential and business customers to take control of their energy and save money.”
Part of this will involve further developing smart meter and related data collection technology, “unlock[ing] insights from British Gas’ 14 million energy customer accounts” by supporting in-house venture Io-Tahoe.
Centrica already owns Hive, a company making smart thermostats that can be controlled remotely via an app. More than half a million Hive thermostats have already been installed in the UK. With this, and the thousands of smart meters British Gas has rolled out, Centrica is looking to keep ahead of the curve in terms of development of smart energy technology.
This latest announcement follows hot on the heels of British Gas’ revelation that they will be freezing their energy prices until August, after several other major suppliers announced that they would be raising theirs in March.
