LoudCell: Solving a huge India-specific problem, making diesel generators more efficient

Huge change takes time. And, hence, the shift towards cleaner forms of energy will take time, as well. And, especially in India, where we’re still grappling with producing enough energy via traditional means, it’s still a long time before we adopt cleaner technologies at scale. In the meanwhile, how about making present systems more efficient? This was the thought with which Ramesh Gupta founded Loudcell.

Ramesh has spent a good two decades in the technology industry in India and abroad across sectors. His expertise lies in telecommunications, enterprise software and applying his knowledge to solve problems around. While analyzing the situation in India, he came across this grave problem of the inefficient diesel generators. In India, there are numerous locations where diesel generators are used for getting continuous electric supply. “These generators, used by small, medium and large businesses, are badly managed and, if their efficiency is harnessed, a lot of money and energy can be saved,” says Ramesh.

LoudCell currently caters to businesses and gives them the intelligence to better use the DG sets. Talking about Ramesh and the company, Atul Bhatia, LoudCell’s advisor says, “He came back from Silicon Valley to start a company focused on conserving diesel in DG sets. While most Indian companies are focused on providing just software solutions, he has built a complete system consisting of hardware and web server such that the usage of diesel in DGs can be monitored over web using mobile devices too.” A laudable effort, LoudCell is based out of the National Capital Region (NCR) and is a 15-member team.

Ramesh and the core team started working on the idea about two-and-a-half years ago while the company was registered in the middle of last year. They have 5 paying clients as of now and some big deals are in the pipeline. Explaining further as to how the efficiency is increased, Ramesh says, “A diesel generator has an optimal load at which it gives the maximum efficiency but in most of the cases, the DG sets are running on the same settings all the time.” Taking another instance of a plant, ordinarily, the worker would start or stop a generator at approximate times but the sophisticated LoudCell system gives the plant manager an idea as to how the operations should be managed."

Generators can be made up to 25% more efficient and the vision is to make the technology available to individual diesel generator owners as well. A solution which is very tangible and has scale, LoudCell is fit to be placed in the ‘hot startups’ category.

Website: LoudCell