January 26th, 2021 — As the grid has grown more flexible and dynamic, one of the largest contributors to electricity consumption has remained stuck in the past. Cooling loads represent a quarter of global electricity consumption, with refrigeration making up a stubbornly large portion of this demand. Despite cooling accounting for the majority of energy expenses for millions of commercial buildings, there are very few solutions that help to digitize and optimize these thermal systems.
Axiom Cloud uses artificial intelligence and automation to solve commercial refrigeration’s biggest energy and maintenance challenges. By transforming thermal systems into intelligent, flexible, and resilient assets, Axiom Cloud lowers energy costs, reduces maintenance costs, and unlocks new revenue streams for a hard-to-decarbonize sector.
The High Cost of Commercial Refrigeration
Buildings in the United States with large thermal loads spend over $120B every year on energy and maintenance costs, with cold storage facilities and retail grocery stores each spending about $14B per year. For retail grocery stores in particular, this cost carries a major impact on their bottom line: refrigeration makes up 40-60% of energy costs in an industry where overall profit margins are less than 2%. Unplanned refrigeration downtime further impacts these slim margins.
Digital advances in commercial refrigeration have primarily come in the form of passive dashboards that provide a wealth of data but few actionable steps to adjust energy consumption or improve maintenance. Taking advantage of these opportunities, however, requires navigating an industry with mature supply chains and entrenched incumbent service providers. By building relationships with the largest grocery chains in North America and building upon existing relationships from their hardware predecessor Axiom Exergy, Axiom Cloud is charting a strategic path to market in a risk-averse industry. (Read more about Axiom Cloud's origin story in Greentech Media).
With unique expertise in commercial cooling operation, power grid dynamics, building power management, and machine learning, Axiom Cloud provides the first turnkey power management and maintenance platform that autonomously generates meaningful value for buildings with large cooling and refrigeration loads.
Using AI to Reduce Energy and Maintenance Costs
Axiom Cloud uses AI and digital twin modeling to address the root causes of retail grocery’s biggest energy and maintenance challenges, tapping into data streams from thousands of sensors that already exist at retail grocery stores. Starting with a generic model based on generalized inputs, Axiom Cloud’s Virtual Technician app quickly adapts to the actual site to provide predictive analytics, actionable insights, and autonomous actions that make it easier for technicians and store managers to locate and address problems. Furthermore, Axiom continuously calculates refrigerant charge in order to precisely detect and reduce leakage of HFCs, which have thousands of times the global warming impact of CO₂.
Axiom Cloud is also transforming how refrigeration systems interact with the grid through its Virtual Battery app, which turns frozen inventory (like ice cream) into a thermal battery by autonomously optimizing cold storage throughout the day. On a site-specific basis, Axiom’s software predictively pre-cools and load-sheds low-temperature systems, manipulating the energy profile of the entire building to reduce energy consumption during expensive peak demand periods and participate in programs like demand response. With Virtual Battery, Axiom Cloud has the potential to bring hundreds of megawatts of load flexibility to the grid without requiring new energy storage hardware.
Powerhouse Ventures Invests in Axiom Cloud
Powerhouse Ventures participated in Axiom Cloud’s seed round, led by Ulu Ventures. The company has had significant traction since its launch in July 2020. With four major North American retail grocery customers including Whole Foods Market, strategic partners like SEER2 and Powerhouse portfolio company Leap, and integrations with Emerson and Parker’s refrigeration controllers, Axiom Cloud has already booked subscriptions at over 80+ grocery stores, and is poised to expand quickly in 2021.
We’re excited to work with Co-Founder & CEO Amrit Robbins, Co-Founder & CTO Nikhil Saralkar, and the entire Axiom team to transform cooling loads into flexible grid assets.
Special thanks to Abe Baca, Marie Thompson, and Ry Storey-Fisher.
To read more about Powerhouse Ventures’ other publicly-announced investments, visit our Insights page.