Battery monitoring: NOVUM from Dresden analyzes large-scale storage for the energy industry

A young Dresden-based company has succeeded in doing what industry leaders have been working on for decades: With the help of innovative measurement technology and neural networks, the NOVUM team can precisely determine the individual state of charge and the service life of batteries. This is a great relief for customers from the automotive and energy industries. They can develop smaller, more efficient batteries and finally know when they need to replace memory to avoid failure. For this achievement NOVUM was awarded as High Tech Startup Europe. Managing Director Mandy Schipke gives us an insight into her work.

Mrs. Schipke, for decades large corporations have been working on better understanding batteries. Why did you, as a comparatively young company, finally achieve the decisive breakthrough?

I think one of the most important factors is courage. As a young company, you simply try out more according to the “trial and error” principle. Large companies are often slower in this respect. Of course, there are also smart people there who have the right ideas. But these ideas have to go through long chains of coordination before they can be implemented and are often lost in the process. It is important to take risks and try things out.

As a start-up, how did you establish contact with potential customers?

We were able to make many contacts at trade fairs where we demonstrated our measurement technology. We also approached potential customers directly. The most important thing is your own attitude. The way of thinking “We can do everything better than you”, which is unfortunately still very common in the start-up scene, is simply wrong. Instead, we ask our customers about their problems and then see if and how we can help them.

Can you give us some insights into a current project?

Unfortunately I am not allowed to name names. But I can talk about our cooperation projects with energy suppliers. After all, energy suppliers are often regarded as dinosaurs that don’t move at all. But this cliché is not true. Interestingly, energy suppliers are very active when it comes to innovation, at least they all have innovation departments that can be the bridge to the relevant business managers.

At the beginning, the challenge in joint projects is mainly the different culture in start-ups and established companies. If you manage to take each other as you are and still meet on an equal footing, the cooperation will work wonderfully.

How do energy suppliers benefit from NOVUM’s battery monitoring?

Utilities have large storage devices that are there to stabilize the grid. With solar systems, for example, the electricity fluctuates depending on the sunlight. This can easily be compensated by batteries. We analyze the batteries by evaluating large amounts of data using artificial intelligence or by installing special measurement technology. This enables us to optimize the storage systems in the direction of economic efficiency.

What are the biggest challenges in the cooperation with energy suppliers?

IT security is always a sensitive issue. But there are solutions for this. Depending on requirements, all data remain with the customer and are analyzed directly on site. This enables us to offer our cooperation partners maximum data security.

What have you learned yourself in your cooperation with the companies?

Above all, that it doesn’t always have to be the most technically sophisticated solution, but the most practicable one. It’s no use giving the customer a rocket if the internal regulations only allow a bicycle. Then a beautiful bicycle is just what is needed.

How are you expanding your customer network today?

Our industry has the advantage of being quite manageable. Everyone knows each other personally by first name. It’s important to keep contacts alive and to keep up to date on developments. I am the Head of Management Board of the Saxon Energy Cluster, which makes networking even easier.

Do you have any tips for our readers from the world of startups or established companies?

Start-ups always do well not to focus primarily on their self-presentation, but to act in a solution-oriented manner. Those who only talk about themselves cannot listen to what customers need at the same time. But that is precisely what makes the difference between a start-up that disappears after two years and a start-up that establishes itself in the long term.

After the pitch, I recommend that established companies give the technical solution of the start-ups a trial run. If the founders react impudently at this point, it is better to refrain from cooperation. Young entrepreneurs who instead ask how the solution should look like so that it is relevant for the established company could be interesting business partners.

Website: www.novum-engineering.com

LinkedIn: Mandy Schipke