Dcbel Energy wants to bring bidirectional home charging to Canada. Electric Autonomy was invited to its Montreal headquarters to hear the plan

Tucked away in an unassuming lowrise in Montreal’s Triangle district is Canadian cleantech and software company, dcbel Energy.

From the outside, you’d never guess anything remarkable was happening.

The front door is off a covered parking area, there’s no signage and the building blends seamlessly with the surrounding residential condominiums.

But that’s all intentional, says dcbel’s co-founder and CEO, Marc-André Forget. Behind closed doors, the company is anything but quiet.

Dcbel occupies the majority of two floors; one is filled with offices, conference rooms and workspaces, all bustling with staff. Down one level, engineers and developers are working in labs, filing patents, writing code and testing their designs.

The goal? To perfect dcbel’s flagship product: the Ara, a home energy station that combines bidirectional EV charging, solar energy conversion and home energy management.

“This product is the most sophisticated residential product [we’ve] ever designed,” says Forget in an interview with Electric Autonomy at dcbel’s Montreal headquarters.

Each Ara station uses seven microprocessors to support three million lines of code. It enables customers to charge their electric vehicles with solar power, store energy and use EV-stored power to run their homes and cut costs.

“This is the reason [for] this building,” says Forge

The beginning of dcbel

The genesis of dcbel dates back to 2015 when Forget saw the growing complexity of energy management.

With the increasing interest in electric vehicles, the introduction of time-of-use variable rates by utilities, and the rise of home energy generation and storage, Forget recognized that the once one-way task of managing household energy had become more complicated.

This realization about bidirectional energy potential sparked the creation of dcbel.

Forget and his team set out to simplify and integrate all aspects of energy management, drawing inspiration from another innovative device.

“We wanted to build the iPhone of energy for the home,” says Forget.

“A very simple product that can learn the way I use energy, know my electrical contract, know the weather and can anticipate how much energy I need so I live my life without compromise.”

Bidirectional concept to prototype

The first fully working prototype of the Ara was created in 2019. But building a working system was just the start of the journey to market.

“It took us five years, and one pandemic to get to the point where we could manufacture it for all homes around the world at a price point people are ready to buy it and we’re still making money building it,” says Forget.

The Ara costs US$5,000 (CAD$6,804). Forget says that, on average, customers will save more than $1,800 annually on energy costs with Ara. That means the payback period is under three years on a unit designed to last more than a decade.

What further justifies the price, Forget adds, is the patented technology inside it. The Ara offers DC fast charging for residential use. It can deliver 1.6 kilometres of range per minute for EVs able to accept a 225 kW charge, says Forget.

But the Ara offers more than just charging an EV. Delivering such high charging power in a home is a major technical challenge, one that could easily overload a typical household electrical system.

To address this, Forget explains that the Ara intelligently manages energy usage to prevent overloading circuits or tripping breakers.

At the heart of Ara is an AI-driven energy management system, which continuously learns and adapts to individual needs.

The system decides when and where energy should go based on real-time conditions.

For example, if the sun is shining and the house doesn’t need power, the Ara directs solar energy to the car. When energy prices on the grid are at peak rates, it can pull from stored battery power or the EV itself to power the house. When prices drop, the system switches back to grid energy. The system will also sell back energy to the grid.

Roadblocks in Canada

Earlier this year, dcbel launched Ara in the United States, with California emerging as a key customer base.

The company spent two years collaborating with Intertek, a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory program member, to validate the safety of its product across various scenarios.

But Ara has yet to be certified for use in Canada.

The primary reason stems from the country’s fragmented energy regulations, which differ from one province to another, making the accreditation and certification process far more complex and costly than in the U.S.

“The rules of Hydro Quebec are not the rules of Nova Scotia Power are not the rules of BC Hydro and are not the rules of ATCO Energy or Toronto Hydro,” says Forget.

That leaves dcbel working to get approval for Ara on a utility-by-utility basis.

Adding to the challenge is the absence of clear regulations in some provinces.

In the U.S., there’s one certification, which ensures products meet strict standards for quality and safety that all utilities across the country follow. But in Canada, there isn’t a unified standard.

“When the rules are clear, it’s easy.” When they aren’t, “it gets complicated,” says Forget.

“We need to have some certainty before investing millions of dollars in certifications and engineering teams spending another year to have this unit certified. We need to make sure that it’s going to work, and [that utilities] are going to allow people to have this installed in Canada.”

Forget believes that it could take another 18 to 24 months before Ara becomes widely available in Canada.

“We are having discussion with various governments in Canada to see how we can introduce this product,” says Forget. “I think by late 2025, it’s going to happen because I think people in Canada want this.”

Investors and partnerships

As dcbel continues to grow its operations, the company remains focused on advancing its bidirectional technology and expanding its market presence.

In terms of funding, dcbel says it is in a strong position, having raised over US$50 million in Series B funding last August. The company’s investors include Volvo Cars, Coatue, Kevin Mahaffey, Real Ventures Idealist Capital and Investissement Québec.

The company is also working with several OEMs including Volvo, Nissan, BMW, Stellantis and Polestar. These partnerships operate on two fronts: engineering and distribution.

On the engineering side, dcbel provides expertise in bidirectional charging, leveraging its extensive patents and technical know-how to make vehicles compatible with this technology and ensure its safety and reliability.

On the distribution front, these partnerships open up new sales channels for dcbel.

For example, with new EVs such as the Volvo EX90 (which is capable of bidirectional charging), dcbel has the opportunity to offer Ara as a turnkey home charging solution for EV buyers looking to integrate bidirectional charging into their homes.

Providing value

For dcbel, 2024 is all about “executing.”

Still navigating a long and sometimes unpredictable journey, the company is laser-focused on delivering real value to its customers.

“Building a company like dcbel is a long journey and it’s really a rollercoaster,” Forget says, highlighting the complexities of managing a vast supply chain with over 5,700 parts sourced from 125 suppliers in 40 countries.

The key, according to Forget, is sustainability — both in the product and the business model.

“We will not be successful at our mission to deliver cleaner and more affordable energy to customers if we go bankrupt in three years,” says Forget.

“We believe, a bit like Apple, that the real star is the product. If people love the product, if you provide values to people, before long, the company will be in great shape.”