AutoGrid: Distributing energy more efficiently
AutoGrid and National Grid Partners use AI to help better integrate clean energy
Utilities have the daunting task of integrating multiple sources of energy into their grid operations, including: utility-owned wind and solar; customer-owned assets; community and rooftop solar; and electric vehicle (EV) and storage assets. At the same time, utilities need to provide its their customers with safe, reliable, and cost-effective energy. This presents the challenge of taking massive amounts of data coming from a variety of sources and making real time decisions to balance demand and supply.
That’s why National Grid Partners made an investment in AutoGrid, an artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics software company in the distributed energy market segment. The foundation is AutoGrid’s Energy Internet Platform, which uses machine learning to process data from millions of energy assets and predict demand patterns. The investment is an acknowledgment of AutoGrid’s technical leadership, with one of the best utility-focused AI teams in Silicon Valley and its strong market traction across over 50 customers and 10 countries.
“Everyone wants a clean energy strategy, and AutoGrid is primed to capitalize on that demand,” says Pradeep Tagare from National Grid Partners. “This is a platform that large utilities like National Grid require to effectively bring those resources online and enable a smarter energy future for the industry.”
“National Grid Partners is at the forefront of utility transformation. Working with the team not only gives us the opportunity to better understand the future, but to actively shape it.”
The good news is that the current energy industry landscape makes it easier than ever for anyone to become an energy producer. The challenge is now on utilities to respond to this expanding distributed energy world.
As a test case, National Grid Partners wanted AutoGrid to integrate and manage over 400MW of commercial and industrial demand response resources across Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island.
By providing a software platform and multiple applications including demand response optimization, distributed energy management, virtual power plant, and energy storage management, AutoGrid showed promise.
This is the path forward for large commercial and industrial users to better use their renewable energy resources and integrate them onto the grid, becoming more efficient and giving them greater flexibility with their own assets.
Has strong market traction across over 50 customers and 10 countries.
