A B.C. company promises sparks won’t fly when its new tech lands.
Vancouver-based VoltSafe Inc. is piloting its new marine plug at several B.C. marinas, including at the Gibsons Landing Harbour Authority.
The tech
“Plug” is perhaps too simple, the tech is a marriage of power pedestal hardware (replacing “archaic” shore power technology) and marina management software.
VoltSafe uses magnets to connect vessels to high-power electricity, replacing cumbersome tech that requires screwing and unscrewing connections and lining up prongs and plugs, said company CFO Scott Carlson.
Instead of prong and plug, there are magnets with flat, fully encased interfaces. The two sides are off by default and the power only starts flowing five milliseconds after the magnets are connected. “It says, ‘I know who you are,’ and delivers the right amount of power,” said Carlson.
Carlson added that the tech eliminates arcing and sparking – a major cause of boat and marina fires. “That’s at the heart of our technology on the safety side of things,” he said.
On the software side, VoltSafe uses machine learning AI to optimize energy use (hopefully eliminating peak demand charges, “which are extremely punitive, especially here in B.C.,” said Carlson).
The system also allows for current leak detection, said Carlson, an issue the industry is trying to tackle as the widespread adoption of electric vessels looms.
For now, VoltSafe has built adaptors that can mount on existing marina pedestals and boat-side plugs. “Down the road, we’ll be building a fully ready-to-go version. But for initial adoption, we think it’s always best to come to market with adaptor versions to make sure it’s as easy as possible and as economical as possible for new users to use our technology.”
VoltSafe’s goal is to pilot the project at a few B.C. marinas – including Gibsons – for three to six months, and then roll out the product and deliver on purchase orders later next year. There’s only one unit in operation at the moment – it’s on the Lower Mainland – but Carlson expects the rest to be installed in January.
“There hasn’t been a lot of technology [innovation] in the marina space,” said Carlson. “There has been on boats but not necessarily on marinas or shore power connections in a long time, so it’s very low-hanging fruit for us.”
Innovate BC
VoltSafe has already received accolades: at the Ibex Show in Tampa, it won the award for best marina hardware plus software solution. And at home, it’s also getting noticed.
Innovate BC and National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) announced last week that it is granting VoltSafe $180,000 through its BC Fast Pilot program.
“We funded a number of different programs and initiatives that help entrepreneurs grow their businesses or commercialize their technology or adopt technologies,” said Tomica Divic, Innovate BC’s interim president and CEO.
“The funding that we provide allows companies to set up the pilot for a demonstration at a potential customer site, use that funding to get data on how their technology works, or can help improve efficiencies, productivity and sustainability of their potential customer, and then use that data to secure that customer or other customers,” explained Divic.
Other projects that have been funded have ranged from agritech to water tech – from upcycling food product, to robotic mushroom harvesting, to clean drinking water tech.
Last week’s announcement, for the fifth intake of the program, saw $2 million distributed among 13 pilots in clean tech and sustainability. The fast pilot program has funded 75 pilots since it started in 2019 and 77 per cent of the projects that have been completed resulted in a new customer, according to Innovate BC.
Innovate BC’s director of tech adoption programs, Maggie Chan, said VoltSafe’s pilot is “a really smart technology that’s been developed in B.C.
“They had [a] prior relationship with an interested customer, so that was seen as very advantageous for us, as well as [the tech’s] ability to save on energy costs and manage the need for energy efficiency much better than anything in the market.”
Carlson said the pilot program that’s partially funded through the grant will go a long way to making sure they have the tech dialed in before they start delivering on purchase orders.
“The pilot program is the last step before this thing is fully in the market and in the wild, so we’re very excited," he said.
