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PowerPlay aims to deliver access to ‘cheaper, renewable energy’

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Web3 startup PowerPlay says it is on a mission to revolutionise the way Australians manage their energy consumption by enabling access to cheaper, renewable energy to people who are unable to install their own solar panels, like renters and those living in apartments.

According to PowerPlay, with energy prices tipped to rise steeply over the next two years, many consumers have turned to solar to mitigate the financial impact, with more than one in four Australian homes now hosting rooftop solar panels.

“However, this energy and cost saving measure is simply out of reach for people who don’t own their own homes. With nearly 3 million Australian households renting, this leaves an enormous section of the population without access to lower cost, renewable energy,” claims PowerPlay.

PowerPlay uses next-gen technology to ‘gamify’ energy usage and empower consumers to make more informed energy choices – and by using the PowerPlay app, users can see when the most renewable energy is available in the grid and shift their usage to those times, saving energy and earning ‘tokens’ that can either be invested, cashed in, or applied as a discount against future bills,” notes PowerPlay.



“Renters are generally excluded from accessing renewable energy at home because they have no control over installing solar panels,” explains Aaron Hilton, Co-Founder and CEO of PowerPlay.

“But in reality, we know that many renters are hugely committed to sustainability and want to live a more environmentally conscious life. Renters are also being hit hard by the rising cost of living, with huge rent hikes occurring right across the country. 

“What PowerPlay aims to do is to democratise access to renewable energy for people who can’t install rooftop solar panels. Our app identifies when the grid is flush with clean energy so consumers can shift their energy usage to those times, and the technology we’ve developed allows them to see their real-time energy usage in five-minute intervals.

“This means users can track the impact that their changes make instantly – both to the environment and their back pocket. That sounds like a really simple thing, but up until now consumers haven’t been able to see how much energy they’re using when they’re using it. When you say that out loud it sounds absurd! Everyone should have access to their own real-time usage data, so we’ve made that a core feature of our product.” 

According to PowerPlay anyone on the National Electricity Market (NEM) who doesn’t have solar panels installed can sign up to PowerPlay, and users simply join a PowerPlay partner energy provider and have a smart meter installed to get up and running.

“In an Australian first, PowerPlay ‘gamifies’ energy usage, with consumers earning in-app blockchain tokens called ‘$REMI’ (Renewable Energy Market Incentive) for using clean energy,” notes PowerPlay.

“So, a consumer can use the app to monitor the electricity grid to see when plenty of renewable energy is available (for example, on a clear sunny day when the grid is flush with solar-generated power), run their high-powered appliances then and be rewarded with $REMI. The more clean energy a consumer uses, the more $REMI they earn.

“I started PowerPlay to offer a viable alternative to solar that uses a Web3 tokenized incentive model. Our game rewards and bill discount model essentially act like a loyalty program that enables the energy user to build up our native token $REMI,” says Hilton.

“Once users earn $REMI they can either swap it for other blockchain tokens, exchange it for Australian dollars or stake it in the PowerPlay Bill Buster for daily rewards and bill discounts.”

PowerPlay launched in March 2021 and finished beta testing in mid-2022 and after a seed funding round raised $800k in August this year, the company says its current pre-revenue valuation sits at $16m.

“To align with PowerPlay’s mission to democratise access to renewable energy, Hilton and the team say they have opened up investment opportunities to small investors via a retail crowdfunding campaign on the Venture Crowd platform which has a minimum investment of $256.

PowerPlay says the crowdfunding campaign will be closely followed by a Series A funding round which will include the acquisition of an established energy retailer.

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