David Watson of Ohme: Why Smart Charging Is More Critical To The EV Revolution Than State-Of-The-Art Car Models

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Watson, CEO and Founder of Ohme. David is the Founder and CEO of smart charging company, Ohme, as well as Founder and CIO of the impact investment manager, Temporis Capital.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Having spent a number of years in the finance world, a huge turning point came for me when I reconnected with my former PhD Supervisor from Cambridge, Sir David King. He convinced me of the climate emergency and in doing so, inspired me to change direction in my career to focus on creating a positive impact. I went on to found Temporis Capital, an investment manager specializing in renewable energy and clean technology.

For years, I enjoyed working on the investment side, witnessing incredible innovation in the face of climate change, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that digital technology was the real key to unlocking the potential of clean energy.

The idea for Ohme came to me in 2016 while investigating clean energy projects. I have a deep passion for the transition to renewable energy but so often, businesses or government initiatives in the sector would stumble over the “feast or famine” nature of resources like wind or solar power. One day the wind blows a gale and the sun shines long into the evening, the next it’s cloudy and still. As the excess energy can’t be stored in our national grid, it goes to waste. Sometimes wind farms even need to be switched off to regulate supply.

It became clear to me that a major barrier to transitioning to clean energy was the growing imbalance in the grid as renewables use increased. I realised the system simply wasn’t fit for purpose and saw the opportunity to use digital technology with electric vehicles (EVs) to adjust demand to meet supply — while accelerating the transition to low carbon transport. I envisioned a smart charging system that could charge people’s EVs at times of peak supply and effectively use EV batteries to store surplus energy from the grid at these times, protecting infrastructure from surges and saving consumers money at the same time. My team and I built the smart technology that could do it and Ohme was born.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

When we think about disruption in transport, it’s easy for our minds to go straight to Tesla trailblazing the way to electrification. And while there’s no doubt that firms like these are the true pioneers of the EV revolution, vehicle technology is just one small piece of a much more complex puzzle.

Already this year, we’ve seen big commitments from other car companies to go all electric by 2030. And while what we’re doing at Ohme might not be as sexy as the state-of-the-art EV models being designed by Tesla, Ford or JLR, I truly believe that our ‘piece of the puzzle’ — smart charging — is absolutely critical to making the transition to zero carbon transport a success.

So, why is the Ohme solution so disruptive?

The petrol and diesel ban will bring an estimated 10 million EVs on UK roads by 2030. If everyone plugged these in at once, the power needed would require Britain to almost double its peak electricity generation capacity.

And while renewables — another critical piece of the puzzle — might be able to provide the necessary capacity, they don’t offer the predictability needed to protect the grid from these spikes in demand.

This is where smart charging comes to the rescue. By ensuring that EVs draw power from the grid at times of cheap, surplus energy from renewables, smart charging solutions solve our capacity challenges. All without the need for huge upfront investment in renewable energy storage infrastructure or backup peak generation solutions. So, by building the first ‘bottom up’, demand led system for charging EVs, we’ve turned a major problem on its head and found an innovative and low cost way to solve it.

And that’s not all. Allowing individual EV drivers to charge when there is surplus energy on the grid means they can benefit from super-low tariffs — in fact, they can sometimes even get paid to charge their vehicle. By lowering the running costs of an EV, we hope to encourage more people to make the move to electric.

Ohme operates right on the frontlines of innovation in our market, disrupting amongst disruptors. This means my team and I are constantly asking; how can we get smarter? Our standout differentiator now is our smart cable which takes lowering EV costs to the next level by doing the hard work for you. As you plug in, the cable knows where you are, how much energy you consume and then optimizes on your behalf to get you the cheapest price to meet your needs, turning any power-point into a smart charging point.

In short, Ohme’s disruption is two fold. Firstly, we’ve created a data-led smart charging system that benefits the whole EV ecosystem by supporting the grid and providing powerful insights into behaviour patterns. Secondly, we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of ‘smart’ to make this technology as convenient and easy-to-use for consumers as possible.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I started my first venture “Temporis Capital”, an impact investment manager focusing on clean-tech and renewables, with my partner and friend Derry Guy.

It was a totally new sector for both of us and Derry described it as “jumping off a 10 metre board not knowing if there was any water below”. As we look back, there’s plenty of amusement to be found in that particular leap of faith.

As it happened, the water we dropped into was somewhat shallow, but we adapted and grew. Twelve years later, we fortunately find ourselves at the other end of the spectrum. Thankfully, the depth of knowledge we have today could break the fall of an Olympic diver and the support we’ve received has been our oxygen tank. It all means I enjoy much more breathing space these days, but that first wobbly leap helped me learn to become more comfortable with uncertainty.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

My late Father was always hugely supportive when I was young and working across several unfinished projects. He made me believe I could achieve anything with hard work, study and experimentation. Both he and my maternal grandmother benefitted from a natural curiosity and sense of adventure which I’ve always admired. From them, I learned that you don’t always need a reason to sit down with someone new, have a conversation and learn something you didn’t know before — in fact, the greatest creativity is born out of an openness to serendipity. That’s true for business and for life.

Another important mentor in my life is my once PhD supervisor and now dear friend, Sir David King. He was the man who brought home to me the gravity of climate change and inspired me to combine my knowledge of Finance with my passion for science and the environment to set up Temporis Capital, an impact investing firm. We invest in the development of wind, solar and hydro energy projects — a path which led me to conceive the idea for Ohme.

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Disruption is not new. Ever since humans have dared to invent, disruption has been happening. The difference today is that it’s happening at a rapid pace, on a global scale.

Of course disruption is not always good, just ask my wife, or a primary school teacher! But in all seriousness, real disruption almost always creates winners and losers. It takes time for any system to adjust to change and in the interim, there’s a level of pain and instability. Any “disruptor” must be mindful of the power we have and consider who could get left behind at each turn.

To me, positive disruption is disruption that will ultimately solve a problem that must be solved, and impact people’s lives for the better. Tackling climate change is the most essential challenge of our time so disrupting the industries in that space by utilizing the newest and best technology can only be a good thing for the world.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

“Measure twice, cut once” — My Dad. Words I will always keep front of mind when making important or irreversible decisions.

“Accept the world the way it is rather than how you would like it to be” — John Gummer (Lord Deben). A phrase I think can really help when building strategies which deal with situations effectively. It’s about being realistic and addressing the real problem in front of you.

“Take the positive out of every situation” — My grandmother. A mantra for a positive mindset. Thinking of this gives me the energy to tackle each new challenge.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

We’re on the brink of some huge developments at Ohme that we’re really excited about, including some major partnerships which are soon to be announced.

In the immediate term, we’re shaking things up with the launch of the Ohme App. It’s downloadable from the App store and Google Play, totally for free and is aimed at lowering the barriers to EV ownership by giving any EV driver access to cleaner, greener and cheaper energy to charge their vehicle.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

The Book, ‘Range’ by David Epstein because it teaches the value of being a generalist rather than a specialist, even when solving a narrow problem within a specific sector.

It champions the value of broad experience and the truth of that is evident in my own career. My cross sector experience in finance, science, energy and tech was what allowed me to spot a problem that hadn’t been solved yet (grid capacity and renewable energy prices) and to create a product that could solve it (the Ohme portable charger and App).

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, studying, sacrifice and most of all, loving what you are doing or learning” — Pele. This quote resonates with me simply because I am driven by the belief that with enough commitment, passion and curiosity, anything is achievable.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

It won’t be a great shock to hear that I think tackling climate change is the most important issue on the global agenda and one which I hope and believe the brightest minds of our generation will unite to solve.

Another movement I’m passionate about — perhaps a more personal and tangible one — is planting trees and creating habitats. As a child I would sit and watch David Attenborough, marvelling at the natural landscapes on screen. As an adult in London, I harnessed a roof terrace to grow almost 1000 trees from seed, collected from far and wide. When I moved to Ireland, the — by then, much bigger — trees were all packed into a van and transported here with me to be part of a beautiful woodland and garden.

In addition to all those trees, we have the largest collection of pear and cider apple varieties in Ireland! Every year, these are turned into award winning cider and apple ice wine by family and friends — it’s a little passion I’ve fostered which brings its own good kind of “good” to my nearest and dearest!

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on Twitter at @Dave_Ohme or connect with me on Linkedin here.

You can also visit the Ohme website here, or get in touch with the team via help@ohme-ev.com.