nPlan wins the Open Innovation Challenge with a tool focusing on derisking projects

BERLIN | nPlan, a start-up from the UK, has won Elia Group’s seventh Open Innovation Challenge (OIC). This year’s Challenge focused on accelerating CAPEX delivery. The OIC is organised by the Group’s Belgian and German subsidiaries (Elia and 50Hertz respectively). Through collaborations with start-ups and entrepreneurs, the Group aims to foster a culture of innovation across its activities and workplaces. During the competition final, which was held in Berlin, the judges chose nPlan as the winning team, due to its many immediate advantages for transmission system operators and can be easily scaled up.

This year’s OIC focused on the topic of CAPEX delivery. In March, earlier this year, start-ups from across the world were invited to submit their proposals under one of these topics: planning, design, project management and supply chain. 

From 800 scoutings, to 95 applicants to five finalists and one winner

95 start-ups from Congo to the USA applied to take part in this year’s challenge. Five of these made it through each of the competition’s rounds and were invited to the final, which was held in Berlin. nPlan came out on top: the judges selected their proposal as the clear winner. Their technology uses a database of 750,000 projects to look into the future and tackle project risks before they become issues. nPlan was awarded a cheque for €50,000 to roll out their project within Elia Group.

"This year brought an exceptionally strong cohort of entries. We started by scouting 800 companies, we considered 95 applications, and our experts worked with 10 companies over the last 4 months. Only the top 5 made it to the final. The proposed solutions were all different, but what they have in common is that they have built compelling products that ad-dress important project delivery challenges in our sector.”
Marco Nix, sponsor of the OIC 

“It was a difficult decision for the jury to make. Ultimately, the feasibility and the concrete possibilities for implementa-tion were the deciding factors. All the candidates had very interesting and good ideas. I am convinced that we can continue to work with several of them. The dynamic nature of a startup can be refreshing. So in all this competition helps us to create an ecosystem and help us in our ambitions.”
Catherine Vandenborre, CEO ad interim Elia Group

Whilst nPlan was selected as the winner of this year’s competition, Elia Group will further explore the projects of other finalists as well; additional partnerships and collaborations with them could well emerge in future. The other finalist were:

• Avaly from Germany, with a solution that helps projects gain local support through their 360° acceptance navigator. 
• Continuum Industries’ (UK) Optioneer accelerates and derisks line and cable routing planning, shortening project design significantly. 
• Neanex (Belgium) presented Fundamend, which creates a digital twin of the asset and project to connect, enhance, and struc-ture all project’s different data. 
• EHAB (UK) uses accurate forecasting to help companies to avoid the weather-related delays which affect 45% of projects.