Energy tech, on this site, means one specific thing: the software that has to exist before neighbours can buy each other’s solar electricity in Switzerland. Not the panels, not the tariff comparison, and not the marketing site. The layer underneath, where a grid operator’s metering file has to become a defensible invoice.
It is an unusual domain to build in. The inputs arrive on someone else’s schedule and in someone else’s format. The unit of work is a fifteen-minute interval, not a user action. The output is a legal document with tax consequences. And the rules differ by community model, so the same platform has to run three of them without pretending they are one workflow with three labels. Very little of that is visible to the member, who sees a signup form and a lower bill.
ZEV, LEG and vZEV
Swiss energy law recognizes more than one way for a group of people to share locally produced electricity, and the differences are not cosmetic. ZEV, LEG (Lokale Energiegemeinschaft) and vZEV each carry their own metering, allocation and billing rules. The 2025 reform that opened Lokale Energiegemeinschaften is what made the market large enough to build a platform for. Upgrid supports all three models as distinct workflows.
What is here
Building Upgrid is the founder story: who the platform serves, the money path at product level, applied AI, and go-to-market. Engineering at Upgrid is the stack tour: apps, metering, allocation, billing, and how a small team ships regulated energy software. Shipping at Upgrid is the cadence piece — merge frequency, time-to-production, and how that compares to a bank-scale estate. The Upgrid work entry is the short version — role, scope, and what is live today.
The correctness bar comes from somewhere else on this site. Fintech Infrastructure and Fraud Prevention cover the years of regulated payments work that set it.