A group of graduates from MIT and Duke University identified manufacturing as an industry overburdened by rapidly growing energy costs and proposed a technology to provide electric bill savings of up to 30%. They will be piloting this technology with a U.S. heat treater, ThermoFusion, a Californian heat treater and brazer.
EQORE, a startup tackling energy issues for manufacturers, is developing smart energy storage systems. They aim to cut industrial energy bills by a third while offering a payback period of 1–3 years. Connected behind the meter, an EQORE system serves as an optimizing filter for electric equipment without changing its operation in any way. The system consists of a wall-mounted computing unit and a compact floor-mounted battery pack. It can be installed inside or outside of a facility and only needs a connection to the electric panel and internet.
The founding team features backgrounds in energy storage engineering from Tesla and Apple, as well as software and business development, and is supported by an innovation fund at MIT. The technology specifically targets reducing demand charges, which can account for 60–70% of industrial electricity costs. Demand charges penalize high variability in electric usage, a characteristic of heat treating facilities like ThermoFusion. For these facilities, a single peak in power usage can drastically increase the entire bill. Remarkably, in some locations in the U.S., demand rates have doubled since 2022.
After talking to over 200 businesses, utility representatives, and energy experts, the team concluded that the solutions to the demand issue remain limited. Available power optimizations disrupt customer operations, while independent power generation like solar is often out of reach due to its decade-long repayment periods. EQORE’s solution empowers clients to reduce energy costs while maintaining existing production levels.
Their team is actively looking to engage with more pilot customers and is open to collaborations.
The original press release is available upon request.
