CIOC Energy secures €3M for solar and battery optimisation

Belgian energy optimisation company CIOC Energy has raised €3 million from renewable energy developer CleverNett, which has taken a minority stake in the company. CIOC Energy will remain independent.

Founded in September 2023, CIOC Energy provides businesses with a single platform for monitoring, controlling and trading energy from solar panels and batteries. The company operates in a fragmented market, where installation, battery control and energy trading are often handled by separate providers with limited coordination between them.

Alexander De Bièvre, CEO of CIOC Energy, said the company encountered these challenges through its experience selling batteries:

We sold batteries ourselves for years, so we know exactly how fast things can go wrong when nobody's keeping watch. Without constant follow-up, faults simply go unnoticed. And when something breaks down, everyone points at someone else: the installer doesn't know the software and the control system only carries out what the energy trader decides.

To address this fragmentation, CIOC Energy combines monitoring, control and trading under a single point of contact. The company has developed its own control module for electricity cabinets, which manages solar panels, batteries and charging points through one system. The platform can direct solar power into batteries, smooth demand peaks when equipment and chargers operate simultaneously and trade stored energy on the market when it is financially beneficial for the customer.

Customers can choose an energy contract with direct exposure to the imbalance market while keeping control of their energy assets separate from the energy supplier. CIOC Energy compares returns without optimisation with those achieved through its platform and charges an agreed share of the difference after distribution and supply costs. If its optimisation does not generate additional returns, the company does not charge a fee.

CIOC Energy currently manages more than 100 business sites and, through CleverNett, another 2,000 home batteries for private households. Across its operations, the company manages more than 100 megawatt-hours of battery capacity and 200 megawatt-peak of solar panels.

The new funding will be used to expand CIOC Energy’s commercial and technical team and establish its own market access. This will allow the company to trade directly on energy markets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Romania.