REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AutoGrid, the market leader in flexibility management software for the energy industry, today announced that its AutoGrid FlexTM DERMS platform has been selected to manage distributed energy resources by NRTC for its member electric utilities.
NRTC represents more than 800 rural electric utilities in 48 states, collectively serving approximately 20 million homes and 50 million residents. NRTC will offer Bring Your Own ThingsTM (BYOT) and distributed energy resources (DER) management technology to its member utilities using the AutoGrid Flex DERMS platform.
“NRTC’s members require technology that is reliable, cost effective, open, and scalable to meet their current and future needs,” said Greg Bartolomei, President, Smart Grid Solutions at NRTC. “We look forward to continuing our leadership in helping members provide affordable, reliable and sustainable energy by leveraging the Artificial Intelligence capabilities in the AutoGrid Flex platform to manage an increasingly distributed and renewable powered grid.”
Under the agreement, NRTC will utilize AutoGrid Flex to harness the value of DERs such as connected thermostats, water heaters, battery energy storage, solar PV and electric vehicles.
NRTC member utilities will use AutoGrid Flex to enroll customers and to monitor, optimize and control DERs. Utilities will gain leading-edge capability to use DERs to harness a broad array of grid services, including demand response and load shifting, co-incidental peak management, renewables integration and other forms of AI-based analytics and optimization capabilities. The end-result for utilities and their customers will be lower costs, higher reliability, greater control and increased use of clean energy.
AutoGrid Flex will be used to orchestrate devices from a variety of vendors such as Google/ Google Nest, Honeywell, ecobee, Schneider Electric, Emerson, ChargePoint, sonnen and several other popular Internet of Things (IoT) device brands. The BYOT capability provides electric cooperative members with a powerful and consumer-friendly demand-management tool. NRTC members’ residential customers will be able to employ IoT smart devices to save money on their monthly bills. In turn, NRTC member utilities will be able to harness the flexibility from these devices to lower demand charges and to cost-effectively integrate more renewable generation into their distribution systems.
“We are honored to partner with NRTC to offer cooperative utilities across the U.S. our advanced flexibility management technology,” said Amit Narayan, Founder & CEO, AutoGrid. “The transformation to a more decentralized, flexible grid must take into account every part of the country, and this agreement with NRTC represents a huge swath of this needed transformation. AutoGrid’s AI-powered real-time optimization and controls platform will empower NRTC member utilities with the choice and flexibility to connect and manage a wide range of grid-edge devices while participating in grid services programs to save money, to the benefit of millions of utility customers within their collective service areas.”
About NRTC:
NRTC is a member-driven and technology-focused cooperative. NRTC provides solutions that help its 1,500 electric and telephone members bring all of the advantages of today’s evolving technology to rural America. NRTC’s products and services are developed specifically to meet the needs of rural utilities and their customers, and include integrated smart grid and utility solutions, advanced energy, broadband infrastructure and managed network services, wireless technologies, and programming distribution capabilities for video providers.
About AutoGrid:
AutoGrid builds enterprise software that enables a smarter distributed energy world. The company’s suite of flexibility management applications allows utilities, electricity retailers, renewable energy project developers and energy service providers to deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy by managing networked distributed energy resources (DERs) in real time, at scale through different value streams. AutoGrid has contracted more than 5,000 megawatts of DERs and works with more than 50 leading energy companies around the world, including Schneider Electric, CLP, E.ON, CPS Energy, Shell, National Grid, NextEra Energy, and Total.
