The brainchild of University of Staffordshire alumnus Steve Holmes, Power SOS is believed to be the first mobile app of its kind in the world.

Alongside long-established and thriving sister company Midlands Power Networks, Power SOS will help to restore power to critical services such as hospitals and prisons as well as the likes of retail, manufacturing, football stadiums and universities when it launches this year.

Steve, the managing director of Stoke-on-Trent based Midlands Power Networks, had the idea for a high voltage response emergency app and has worked with University of Staffordshire students to make it a reality.

Power SOS now has a team of five employees, mostly sourced from University of Staffordshire through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership and Unitemps, and is projected to go from a standing start to a significant annual turnover when it launches in the third quarter of the year.

The app holds each customer’s asset register and records and not only provides information as to possible causes but also highlights to any attending engineers any specific risks on that site ensuring they are well informed before arriving on site and HSE compliant. Not only will this minimise downtime it also reduces the risk for environmental impact and insurance claims.

Combining several cutting-edge technologies, AI to not only assist the customer in identifying their emergency but also the engineer in resolution; new location tracking, as yet not available in the world except within this app, and even predictive analysis to help prevent failures before they happen.

The app will record attendances and their outcomes and customers will be able to leave reviews.

Power SOS has entered the Start-up Business of the Year and Innovation Award categories of University of Staffordshire Business Awards.