A UK university research group had a novel power-electronics technology for the electricity distribution sector and a national innovation funding bid to write. The funding programme required rigorous power electronics market validation, honest answers to two questions the team did not yet have evidence to answer. What is the market opportunity? And what is the realistic route to commercial deployment?
What Hatch did
Market sizing across two voltage segments, low-voltage distribution, high unit volumes; medium and high-voltage, lower unit count but significantly higher unit value. Both sized separately because their commercial dynamics, procurement cycles and adoption pathways are entirely different. Then the primary research. 250 outreach contacts into an extremely narrow field with only five major players. Ten completed interviews with distribution network operators, independent network operators, microgrid operators and tier-one power-electronics manufacturers.
The most valuable finding was the hardest one. This market does not engage with cold outreach. New technology adoption runs through tier-one OEMs because that is the only route the procurement systems are built to accept. That finding went into the funding bid honestly, unchanged. Funding panels read optimistic technology bids every day. Evidence-based commercial reasoning, including the awkward findings, is what gets funded.
The recommendation
The route to market is not direct sales to network operators. It is licensing or co-development with tier-one OEMs, with low-voltage renewable integration applications as the faster entry segment while the longer tier-one partnership work runs in parallel.
Where it stands
Engagement complete. Findings remain commercially confidential.
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