Verlume, a specialist in clean energy system integration, intelligent energy management and energy storage, has appointed Robert Heron to the new role of Product Manager to help position the business for growth at scale. Robert will work to align the company’s capabilities within intelligent energy management with the customer requirements across multiple industry sectors, including the subsea energy transition, offshore wind and the defence and security segments.
Enabling clean, resilient and integrated energy systems, at the core of Verlume’s offering is a propriety intelligent energy management system which is now known as Axonn. Axonn is the gateway for renewable power and energy storage, autonomously maximising available capacity of an energy storage system in real time. It is technology input agnostic, meaning it can accept power from a range of renewable energy inputs such as wind, wave or solar. Axonn is integrated as part of Verlume’s Halo, a scalable, modular battery energy storage system.
With a background in mechanical engineering, Robert joined Verlume as one of the founding employees in 2013 and has since worked in engineering and project management roles. As product manager, Robert will work closely with Verlume’s chief technology officer, Paul Slorach, to further develop Axonn, Halo and the company’s subsequent suite of products as a battery systems provider for harsh environments.
In addition to managing Verlume’s existing subsea product lines, Robert will build product scopes for new sectors such as offshore wind, where Verlume has been developing the solutions necessary for offshore energy storage and intelligent energy management for offshore wind farms. Following an award win at German offshore wind giant RWE’s first international innovation competition in July, Robert will be working to refine Axonn for use cases such as increasing integrity and efficiency by balancing supply and demand, power conditioning and storage for charging electric and hybrid vessels, or for black start and load balancing for electrolysers.
Richard Knox, chief executive officer at Verlume said: “As Verlume continues to evolve, it is important that our intelligent energy management capabilities also evolve to meet increasing decarbonisation requirements across the energy landscape. To meet net zero targets, there is no singular silver bullet from a power generation perspective. An intelligent energy system will be required which can operate with multiple, predominantly intermittent power supply sources and deliver these securely to microgrids and national grids.
“Axonn is central to addressing this technology gap and Robert will be at the heart of this process, leading our integrated team of various engineering disciplines to configure our modular solutions to meet client needs. Back in 2013, Robert was the first ever design engineer that we employed so it is fantastic to see the professional development and journey that Robert has taken in our business, now holding such a prominent role.”