Energy-driven Cork man leads team to hackathon success

A Cork man who helped develop a cloud-based system to co-ordinate emergency responses to problems on the electricity network, during storms, has won an innovation award.

Glenn Moynihan, from Killeens, Co Cork, led an eight-person team which created the cloud-based platform during the intensive Big Energy Hack which took place in Dublin over 48-hours the weekend before last.

The ESB said it hopes to work with Mr Moynihan over the coming months to further develop and implement the system.

The solution, created by Mr Moynihan and his Cloud Command team, allows emergency services such as the gardaí, fire services, hospitals and state agencies to share information such as the precise location of damage on the network in real-time.

The system could lead to better co-ordination of the emergency response during times of crisis. More than 150 hackers participated in The Big Energy Hack, organised in partnership with DCU Alpha and Dogpatch Labs.

They then had to build and pitch their idea to a panel of judges, before forming into teams.

The teams then faced three individual challenges focused on enhancing the electric driving experience, empowering customers to be more energy efficient, and enhancing the reliability and quality of the electricity supply.

They were supported by more than 30 mentors — all experts in the energy industry — as well as business, IT and marketing professionals.

The judges said they were highly impressed with the scale and ambition of all the ideas. The Cloud Command team scooped the top prize of €5,000 and they now have the possibility of developing this idea further at ESB’s innovation hub, X_Site.

Pat O’Doherty, chief executive of ESB, congratulated the winning team.

“Glenn and the Cloud Command team devised an idea that is not only innovative, but also practical and implementable and ESB will be working with the winning team to investigate how to make this idea a reality in the coming months,” he said.

The second prize went to the JOLT team, who developed a technology using social media platforms to identify a household’s electricity bill, and help consumers save money in real time.

Third prize was awarded to the SPOT team, who devised the concept of parking sensors to manage designated Electric Vehicles charging spots.