The transition to renewable energy is not only about adding more wind turbines or solar farms. It also requires making demand more flexible so that consumption can adjust to the availability of renewable power. At Shared Electric GmbH, I worked on three interconnected projects that demonstrated demand flexibility in action:

1. Building a low-cost IoT device to measure household consumption.
2. Developing an interactive tool to show the value of load flexibility.
3. Designing a demand-side management platform to connect utilities and consumers. Together, these projects demonstrated how technology can link consumers, utilities, and the grid to create smarter, cleaner energy systems.

Electricity grids face a growing challenge: demand rarely matches supply. Evening peaks arrive just as solar output drops, while midday often brings excess solar generation when demand is modest. Traditionally, utilities have bridged this gap with fossil fuel plants, an approach that is both costly and carbon-intensive. As renewable energy continues to scale, a smarter path is emerging in the form of demand-side management (DSM). By shifting when and how people use energy, DSM helps bring demand closer to supply. Instead of treating consumers as passive users, it engages them directly in balancing the grid.

While DSM is effective in theory, people need to be actively involved to make it work at scale. At Shared Electric, that became our starting point for building a pilot system called Engaze. It enabled utilities to request small shifts in energy usage while engaging consumers through timely nudges via app notifications. The system served as a testbed to demonstrate how behavioral demand response could work in practice.

Electricity powers nearly everything we do, yet most of us rarely think about when we use it. Behind the scenes, demand rises and falls every hour, and the grid works constantly to keep supply in balance. What remains invisible to households are the timing, costs, and emissions, the factors that hold the key to making energy both cheaper and cleaner.

Imagine reducing your electricity bill and cutting CO₂ emissions simply by running your washing machine a few hours later. Take laundry as an example: shifting a wash cycle from the busy 6 pm slot to 3 pm not only leverages solar generation and lower costs but also lightens the evening demand on the grid. The result is real savings for households and a lighter footprint on the environment. When scaled across millions of homes, the collective impact becomes significant. The real challenge, however, lies in making these benefits visible, as most utilities and consumers rarely recognize just how much money and carbon can be saved by shifting demand.

Modern energy grids are getting smarter, yet they still lack a key aspect: real-time data on household electricity use. Without it, much of the renewable energy ends up wasted, and the grid has to rely on fossil fuels during peak hours. While working at Shared Electric GmbH, a renewable energy startup, Shaaz and I built a lightweight IoT device to make electricity monitoring accessible and affordable for households and utilities.