Pakistani Engineers' New Device Reduces Electricity Usage at Home by 20pc

ENENT, a startup founded by a team of electrical engineering graduates from National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) in Karachi developed a device to reduce electricity use at home by 20%.

The device patented as 'Intellica-Three-Phase Load Balancer' was one of the winners of 2020 UN Asia-Pacific Low Carbon Lifestyles Challenge organized by the United Nations Environment Program in May.

Osama bin Shakeel, CEO of ENENT, explains that installing Intellica at 1,000 homes would lead to 18,000 tons less carbon dioxide emissions and $500,000 would be saved, which is enough to power additional 200 homes in Pakistan. The cost of the device and its installation is $350, which pays off after seven-eight months of use.

ENET has already conducted a 3,000-hour reliability test on this device and is now looking for funds to start mass production.

Shakeel adds that "there is a huge gap between supply and demand (in Pakistan), we believe that this load-balancing technology can play its part in making this band narrow, as up to 18 to 20 percent line losses can be reduced if we balance the load among the three phases in real time and that is what Intellica is doing."

Although, the device is conceptually a good product, experts believe that more tests and before-and-after analysis is required before the startup starts mass-production.