Ben Burge, the man hoping to re-ignite the electricity market

Bright spark: Ben Burge is hoping consumers will want to be involved with their choice of electricity suppliers. Photo: Salona Chithiray

Meet Ben Burge, the math whiz trying to shake up the staid retail energy market with a smartphone app and a good dose of analytics.

When he is away with the family, his mother-in-law pops by discreetly to do a load of washing. Her only explanation for his seemingly clairvoyant ability to know when to send her thank-you flowers is strategically placed web cams.

The truth is far more prosaic. Burge, chief executive of online retail energy challenger Powershop, knows when she's there because the company's app on his smartphone registers an unmistakeable spike in his home's energy consumption.

An app for buying alternative power. Photo: Salona Chithiray

It's a powerful tool and one he wants to put in the hands every Australian in a bid to take on the major energy retailers with cheaper and cleaner electricity.

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Burge, once Australia's youngest CEO of a listed company, eMitch, at 25, and keen skateboarder, has already picked up 30,000 customers in Victoria whilst at the helm of what Powershop claims is the world's first retail online energy market.

It lets consumers use a smartphone app (oniPhone andAndroid) or the web to monitor their energy consumption at home and choose the source of their electricity from alternative energy projects including wind, solar or even sugarcane processing and landfill generation. A move that could help increase demand for renewable energy.

A screenshot from the app.

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Ben Burge, the man hoping to re-ignite the electricity market