I would prefer to have our CEO Philippe Beauchamp showcased for the article. Attached is a picture of him and here is a short bio:Philippe Beauchamp, ing. is UgoWork’s co-founder and CEO. Prior to UgoWork, Philippe worked as an electrical engineer for Alstom power, a global provider of industry-focused energy solutions, where he advised in the development of power solutions for hydro-electrical projects. Philippe holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Laval University and pursued master-level studies on energy management at Sherbrooke University. He is also a member of l’Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec.
COMPANY INFORMATION
● UgoWork
● Based in Quebec City, Canada
● Over 50 employees
● https://ugowork.com/
● For information: https://ugowork.com/contact-us/
● About: UgoWork develops, manufactures, and distributes innovative lithium-ion power
solutions and energy expertise that unlock the possibilities of Energy as a Service for the
material handling industry. The company leverages telemetry to help its proactively
clients solve operational challenges through accessible pay-per-use plans. UgoWork’s
products and energy solutions cater to industrial vehicles operating in the food and
beverage, manufacturing, transportation, and distribution sectors. Based in Quebec,
Canada, the company offers its solutions across North America to many fortune 500
companies.
COMPANY ABOUT INNOVATION FEATURES
Does your Company produce technology or solutions that are implemented in Smart Cities? How can this implementation improve the life of people?
Our company produces lithium-ion batteries and energy management systems that are implemented in factories and distribution centers. These implementations allow for CO2 emission reduction, reduce energy consumption and improve labor productivity and safety.
Which technology are your Company’s smart solutions based on? Is the core technology used in the solution your development, or are you integrating vendor parts into your complex solution or
architecture?
Our lithium-ion batteries are designed and manufactured in house. Our design involves the integration of lithium-ion cells (LG Chem), embedded chargers, and EV type charging connector, a thermal management system and our own battery management system (BMS). The software suite is also developed by UgoWork (back-end and front-end).
How do you see the City’s improvement after implementing your projects/products into the city infrastructure? What are the expected results in the short (2030) and long (2050) term views?
In the current state, we see results at the factory or warehouse level (CO2 emission reduction, energy efficiency improvement, health and safety (H&S) incidents reduction. In the short term (2030), we expect to deploy our energy management software outside of individual buildings’ walls, so that optimization can be achieved at greater levels. We also foresee energy management to be made not just on forklifts, but also all energy consuming equipment (manufacturing machines, building heating and cooling, solar panels, power walls…).
Ultimately, our vision is to reach energy savings at the city level, so much so that it could perform peak shaving on a macro level and impact the scale of the infrastructure.
What are measurable criteria by which you track the performance of your solution? What do you measure, and what parameters do you evaluate? What is the monitoring period to decide
whether the project is efficient?
For each project, we measure the baseline in terms of energy consumption (kWh), CO2 emissions (CO2 tons) and costs ($). Then for each customer, there are specific KPIs that are used (productivity level (throughput/$), downtime (%), H&S indicators, ROI delay (years).
During your R&D (Research & Development), have you discovered typical problems of cities or citizens, and have you located the solution to these problems? How did you learn to integrate
these technologies into cities, and what were city representatives and citizens?
The common problems that we discovered during our R&D phase apply to all of our customers:
● Batteries are seen as an expense, a necessary evil;
● They have problems with energy management, it creates problems like
downtimes and health and safety issues;
● Energy management is not in their core skill set and they don’t have the
knowledge or tools to properly manage it;
● They are sensitive to CO2 emissions and sustainability, but they don’t know how to
leverage their material handling operations in achieving their targets. They would
greatly benefit from experts to take care of it for them.
The UgoWork system is the solution to these problems. The lithium-ion technology is more energy efficient than lead-acid or propane, so it tackles CO2 emissions and energy costs. UgoWork’s Energy as a Service plans are a turnkey solution, so that customers don’t have to worry about batteries, while optimizing their operations.
What are the usual development costs and new product/solution release duration? How much time does it usually take for your Company from an idea through development to include the final solution in the product portfolio?
Completely new hardware products may take roughly one year to develop, but it is of course variable. Variations of an existing hardware product or software products, on the other hand, take less time. Costs cannot be disclosed.
COMPANY ABOUT SMART CITIES
What is your opinion about the direction of Smart Cities and the smart technology market soon? What kind of smart technology has the biggest potential to succeed from the global perspective? Why do you think so?
Generally speaking, technology that improves the quality of life of citizens has a great chance of getting popular endorsements. The economic dimension is also of great importance. Change won’t occur if the price is higher, or not significantly lower (there is a cost to change).
What City in the world should be taken as an example of the Smart City. Why do you think so?
● Recycling in Korea – because by putting the infrastructure in place, and by having the population participate actively, they yield great results and lean towards a more circular economy.
● Singapore for its public transportation – because it allows a large number of people to commute for an average small amount of time per day with sustainable solutions.
● Paris for its water management – because of quality increase and better accessibility
● Energy management in Iceland – because it maximizes available sources of energy to make it available to the public.
What are the usual technologies implemented in the most developed cities? What value gives this technology to citizens?
What is at stake today relates to global warming, cost of living, quality of life, sustainability, economic stability, health… Technology that can tackle some of these issues is promising because it addresses real issues.
What are new technologies becoming more popular these days? Can you mention a few city features that impressed you during the last few years?
● Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and data analytics are key in making better decisions
● Energy management technologies is key in ensuring optimal usage of energy
● Automation is key in addressing labor shortage and freeing people from lower value tasks
What should be “a must” technology available in every “Smart City” located in Europe? What are EU cities’ specific parameters (infrastructure, environmental, cultural, other) compared to Smart
Cities in Asia or other countries/continents?
Don’t have an opinion on that question.
What do you think? What is following what? Are people changing based on new technologies coming on the market? Or is it a technology that is changing based on people’s needs?
Good technology has to answer people’s needs, that is mandatory, although it is not always possible for people to express what their needs are. The root of good technology comes from understanding people’s opinions and translating their needs, then developing the technology that answers those needs.
How are technologies changing our daily life? Can technologies make the world better by creating a stress-less environment? What should be an innovative manner that makes people’s lives more comfortable?
For example, rather than making people rush and stressed as visible these days?
As stated before, improving quality of life is critical. In any form possible. Technology that can make that changes our daily lives.
What inventions will change the world during the next 15 years? Have you read or seen some features that impressed you in the past few years?
Same answer as previous question in 1st part:
● Recycling in Korea – because by putting the infrastructure in place, and by having the population participate actively, they yield great results and lean towards a more circular economy.
● Singapore for its public transportation – because it allows a large number of people to commute for an average small amount of time per day with sustainable solutions.
● Paris for its water management – because of quality increase and better accessibility
● Energy management in Iceland – because it maximizes available sources of energy to make it available to the public.
What can be the motivation of politicians or particular city representatives to develop a plan to make their cities smarter? Smarter in the meaning of infrastructure, technologies, culture, or an
environment-based manner?
As stated before, improving quality of life is critical. Policies leading towards that goal, including technology, should be prioritized.