Banking power in Bethel: POWR2

Before Tim Doling, the global director of innovation and development and co-founder of POWR2 helped establish the company in 2018, he already worked in energy.

“Myself and [CEO] Toby Nunn started our business in the UK, working in the UK for Toby’s father-in-law, selling equipment to the construction industry,” Doling explained. “It was primarily fuel storage tanks, so we were selling to anybody using fuel on site, and a lot of those companies were generator companies.”

That prior company, Western Global, came to the US in 2007 but was eventually sold. According to Doling he and Nunn realized that their expertise regarding on-site energy storage applied to more than just tanks for fossil fuels.

“We realized this sort of green movement was coming to Europe and we thought there could be an opportunity in the US for that,” Dolling said. “So, we came from the UK to the US, and from one industry to another, slightly different, greener industry.”

Doling explained that they used connections with companies that rented generators to construction crews about how they could better store the energy they produced.

“We could go and talk to those customers and say we can see in Europe and the UK that they’re using this battery storage to stop the generator running,” Doling said. “So, you’re using less fuel, you’re cutting emissions, and you’re cutting costs.”

“The main thing we carried over was the customer relationships,” Doling said. “And they liked the rugged design of the product because these people move things from site to site. We took some of our learnings from working with a very rugged fuel tank and we made a very rugged battery.”

Since 2018 POWR2 has been headquartered in Bethel, Connecticut, in the same facility where the sleekly utilitarian power banks and control systems are assembled and shipped.

Doling said that Bethel has served as an excellent home for the company, providing the ideal mixture of affordable industrial space and easy access to the offices of key clients as well as logistics hubs and the airports their international sales teams rely on.

The company has grown to almost 100 employees, with around 80 of them working out of Bethel while maintaining a global reach.

Among recent successes in the European market is GeniWatt, a French company that provides power solutions across numerous industries including banks, hospitals, data centers, offshore and marine facilities.

“We are pleased to represent the POWR2 brand in France, offering our customers a reliable, high-performance energy solution. GeniWatt supports its customers in the energy transition, and the POWR2 BESS [Battery Energy Storage System], either on its own or combined with a genset and/or a renewable energy source, is a solution that will contribute to decarbonization,” said John Hegarty, general manager at GeniWatt in a recent press release.

The technology is a popular back up solution at music festivals as well, allowing the show to go on even in the event of a power interruption.

According to Director of Marketing at POWR2 Anne Nelson while the company has a diverse client list there are two goals that almost all of them have when they settle on POWR2.

“You get those customers that have sustainability initiatives, that have decided that they’re cutting their CO2 initiatives by X percentage by 2026 and we can say ‘this is how we can help,’” Nelson said. “But you also have the price conscious customer who comes and says, ‘we’re looking to reduce costs on our operations,’ and either one we’re able to help equally.”

Nelson explained that while many customers may use POWR2 products in tandem with traditional generators, all of the power they produce while idling before and after a heavy-duty task, or when being run even just below their peak capacity is currently wasted. Even a small power bank can turn some of that wasted energy into the power needed for site lights, pumps, electronics, or any other job around the site where turning on the generator could be a hassle, particularly in areas where noise or pollution ordinances might limit the hours when a diesel or gas generator can be run.

Additionally, while generators will put wear and tear on their moving parts simply starting up and idling, a power bank can provide on-demand power around the clock with drastically reduced need for maintenance or spare parts.

“Our product is made of three things,” Doling said of the simple construction that enables that performance. “We have a battery, an inverter, and then a control system that ties that all together. The technology of batteries and inverters is moving very quickly and that’s not something we build ourselves.”

Doling said that POWR2’s development efforts are focused on pairing the best available off-the-shelf components with an advanced “brain.”

“That allows us to tie together any technology that comes onto the market, so if there is a radical change in technology, we can integrate that easily into our systems because we are on the software side, that’s what we focus on to differentiate ourselves.”

But more than the technology, Roling said that POWR2’s success relies on the quality of its employees, which was an additional reason to move to Fairfield County in order to ensure a deep talent pool.

“The first thing that sets us apart is our team and our people,” he said. “We’ve gathered from around the world, and a lot from here in Connecticut. They just set us apart as being a Grade A team.”