Toronto-based REGEN Energy, which I’ve written about several times on this blog, has raised $5.5 million from NGEN Partners and BDC Venture Capital. The money will be used to expand the North American marketing efforts of the company’s EnviroGrid product, which is a swarm logic platform that can be used to manage the energy demand of equipment in commercial and industrial facilities. Instead of controlling equipment through a centralized command-and-control model, REGEN can attach its EnviroGrid devices to individual pieces of equipment, which function as part of a cooperative decentralized system. The devices, in essence, “talk” to each other like bees in a hive, hence the term “swarm logic”. This decentralized model is less costly and just as — if not more — effective than centralized approaches. This is a classic example of biomimicry, in and fact I mention REGEN’s work in the biomimicry chapter of my new book Mad Like Tesla.

“This is an exciting time for REGEN as we receive follow-on orders from large corporate accounts. We’re excited to increase our channel partners’ revenues by delivering further value-added services to their customers,” said REGEN CEO Tim Angus. The company has had several successful pilot projects with utilities and is now focusing its efforts on the U.S. market, particularly California, where the company just opened up an office. It also has its eyes on the Northeast U.S., where there are plenty of demand-reduction and incentive programs that make this technology an attractive option.

My Clean Break column today revisits Toronto-based Regen Energy, which I first wrote about a couple of years ago. The company has developed a wireless device that uses “swarm logic” to manage the operation of large energy-consuming appliances. Some energy management systems are based on a central control model that tells individual devices when to turn on and off. Swarm logic, on the other hand, relies on these individual devices to work it out themselves. This collective negotiation process achieves a superior outcome, and much cheaper than using a complex command-control system. Hell, it works for bees, right?

Regen has since realized that its devices could be ideal as a way to manage the charging of electric cars. The fear utilities have is that a number of people in a neighbourhood will plug in their cars at the same time and overwhelm a transformer, causing a community to brown out. Affluent communities in California, where homeowners are most likely to adopt the first generation of electric cars, are particularly vulnerable. Regen is in talks with one California utility and several engineering colleges to test out its swarm logic devices as part of a pilot project, to see how good the devices are at managing EV charging. I look forward to seeing the results.