How Tilt Energy Uses AI to Cut Power Costs and Emissions by Optimizing Grid Flexibility

Tilt Energy is taking on one of the energy sector's biggest challenges: managing electricity demand in a smarter, more sustainable way by developing software to help control consumption across France.

This system enables individuals and companies to use electricity more efficiently as a benefit for both cost and the environment. Tilt's software informs community members when they should reduce electricity use. Due to the pressure French electricity faces from overconsumption, the company hopes this new software will lower costs, cut emissions, and avoid the need for new infrastructure. 

“Our goal is simple: to make a 100% electric, decarbonized, resilient, and affordable system possible,” said Tilt Co-Founder and CEO Romain Serres.

Origin Story

Serres began his studies of energy as an engineering undergraduate student at France’s École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers, before attending 

Columbia University in the United States, where he received a master’s degree in Statistical Machine Learning and Computational Approach to Energy. With a background in flexible energy, he has been able to provide a new perspective on the electricity grid. After pursuing a career in machine learning and AI at companies such as BlaBlaCar, he came back to the idea of ‘how can we apply AI to electricity?’ and ‘is it the right timing?’

In 2022, Serres and Guillaume Louat teamed up to create Tilt Energy. Louat’s background in finance and consulting, combined with Serres’ background in software, set them up to be the perfect team for this project.

When getting started, Serres said, “I guess it was like a two-step. It’s a product I’ve always had in my mind for the last 10 years. Then we came searching for the business we could build.” When considering what is urgently required for the grid and electricity markets, the team came across the idea of "flexibility." 

Flexibility's Future

Electrical flexibility is a key aspect for controlling energy costs. It implements more renewables into electricity to optimize the system. Serres shared that when Tilt Energy first began, the founders believed that electricity management would be the cornerstone to energy transition. It is predicted that electrification of uses will accelerate in the coming years through new types of mobility and heating. New devices are connecting to the grid constantly, introducing new and complex patterns.

It is important to maintain flexibility to carefully manage consumption. Tilt Energy uses technology to connect devices to align consumption and production for the benefit of electrical systems. 

The Investors

VC firm Daphni led a recent €5 €5M seed round raised by Tilt, which also included money from previous investors, including Founders Future and AFI (Alliance for Impact by Ventech). This money will allow Tilt to improve its technology and reach a wider audience. Serres said the investment will also be used to increase the size of the tech team, allowing them to grow marketing and communication efforts.

Stanislas Lot, Daphni’s partner who led the Tilt Energy investment, shared that he met the founders about 18 months ago. Lot said that what stood out the most was the founders’ ability to execute their ideas. “We just saw with our eyes that they were really good for their clients,” Lot said.

Daphni was able to introduce the team to multiple different advisors and clients. From there, Tilt managed to turn every introduction into a collaboration or contract. At the beginning, the firm and the startup worked together to find the proper business angle. Daphni presented Tilt with new customers and helped plan strategies. The idea has been for Daphni to connect the team with the right people for the right problem. 

The goal of this project will not be achieved quickly. With the long term in mind, Daphni expects to invest in Tilt beyond the beginning stages. Daphini typically remains on a long-term journey, with funds that last about 10 years. The idea when entering new projects is how the firm can support this company as it grows across later stages, Lot said.

Tilt’s goals fit well into Daphni’s broader sustainable investment strategies. Daphni has done a lot of work in the energy space and supports the use of software in the fight against climate change. Part of the fund’s mission includes accelerating the move from the use of fossil fuels to electricity. 

Lot shared that Tilt has been very quick to address the software market, connecting to Daphni’s strong support for electrification from an ecological standpoint. Tilt is providing a better output for carbon emissions as well as the sovereignty of Europe. “It is 100% in our investment thesis,” Lot said. Electricity demand is becoming volatile, which will create a lot of opportunities in the future. “We think they are very well positioned to face this with a fully software approach,” Lot said. 

AI And Energy

Tilt’s software uses AI to monitor when electricity demand is overloaded, so people know when to shift electricity use to a lower-demand time. By avoiding energy peaks when electricity is most expensive and polluting, users can have a smarter impact. 

This requires a strategic algorithm that can consider many different factors and parameters. AI will need to manage utilities and read operators while considering consumers and producers. Tilt is working on AI optimization to ensure consumption occurs at the right time. Tilt must know when a device will consume electricity, when the battery will charge or discharge, and when electricity will hit its peak. The startup is always working with different partners to guarantee that the AI model can accept a large amount of data. 

Tilt Energy's solution allows electricity demand to be matched to production through three markets: heating for homes or commercial buildings, electric vehicle charging, and battery systems with or without photovoltaic panels. Tilt markets its solution B2B or B2B2C, for example, through property managers. To operate, the startup relies on energy usage monitoring equipment such as Linky smartmeters.

This approach aligns with major software updates made over the last three months by RTE, the agency that manages France’s electrical grid. As France’s Transmission System Operator (TSO), RTE has invested €100 billion into modernizing France’s electricity network by 2040. Rather than building new infrastructure to handle peak demand, software tools control consumption by allowing off-peak times. “Instead of paying money to put more cable in France, we could use a very small part of this money and give it to consumers who are willing to adapt their consumption,” Lot said.

Tilt sets itself apart from other companies because it is not focused on energy efficiency, but rather flexibility: how to consume at the right moment for the cheapest outcome. “We don’t mix, we only focus on this,” Serres said.

In comparison to other projects Daphni has worked on, Lot said Tilt has a deeper knowledge of TSO and Distribution System Operator (DSO) strategies. 

In the utility industry, there are often a lot of promises with very little delivery. Tilt has already proven the opposite, in part because the team is filled with engineers. Lot said this is the main difference between Tilt and other companies he has worked with. In the tech scene, most teams are composed of people with business-heavy backgrounds. The engineers who make up Tilt go into their projects with an understanding of software development and how it contributes to data science and AI, he said. 

Serres also shared that they have an edge because they are based in France. In recent years, the country’s major utilities have massively deployed Linky smart meters to homes and offices, which allow for greater real-time consumption monitoring. Tilt can now leverage that infrastructure with its service. “We were a part of the three or four electricity startups in Europe that started more than two and a half years ago,” he said. Being based in one of the largest countries, with one of the most forward electricity grids, offers a critical market size difference as Tilt seeks to establish itself. 

The Road Ahead

Tilt is working to implement new cases for the tech scene and expand its client partnerships. 

At this moment, Daphni does not predict any specific challenges when facing environmental or social factors. Lot shared that often in these projects, many startups must alter the structure of their team as they rapidly grow. Organizations often fail when a company grows too quickly. However, Daphni wants to ensure a smooth transition as Tilt scales, guiding it from one stage to the next, and supporting it with the right kind of data and strategies.

Serres, however, predicts that challenges will arise through the transition to AI in sustainability. As a company, Tilt does not believe in one person doing everything. Each team member has their strengths to contribute. “This is where we saw an edge in ourselves,” Serres said. Serres shared that over the next 10 years, they will see improvements in AI that will enhance their product. “A lot of the actual task is just predicting what's going to happen next,” he said. Currently, the team tracks the appropriate hours for electricity consumption, with AI only used in specific steps. In the future, AI will be able to control when the electricity is most efficient on its own. However, this project does not use generative AI, meaning the team decides when it is the right moment for AI to take charge. 

This project has the capacity to replace the use of a nuclear power plant to serve the utility and large consumers. Currently, anyone has the ability to go out and visibly see solar panels on someone's roof. Long term, however, Serres said people will not be able to expect a flat costing price; they will have to adjust their consumption patterns. 

As such, Serres predicts that flexibility will become a bigger part of the energy management conversation: “If you want cheaper electricity, it will be about when you consume it."