REDWOOD SHORES, CA–(Marketwired – Jan 27, 2014) – AutoGrid Systems, a leader in Big Data analytics and cloud computing solutions for the energy industry, announced today that it has raised $12.75 million in a Series C financing led by a consortium of strategic investors to expand its operations and bring its breakthrough Big Data analytics and predictive control technology to energy companies, utilities, and electricity users worldwide. The consortium includes the large European utility E.ON as well as existing investors Foundation Capital and Voyager Capital, among others.
The new round of funding will support AutoGrid’s rapid customer growth for its Energy Data Platform (EDP) as well as expand the suite of company developed and third party applications available on EDP for use by the energy industry.
“E.ON has an ambitious objective to make energy cleaner and better wherever we operate,” said Dr. Urban Keussen, Senior Vice President of Technology and Innovation at E.ON. “We are looking forward to deploying AutoGrid’s market leading big data analytics and cloud computing technologies across several of our businesses.”
E.ON is one of the world’s largest utility holding companies, serving over 26 million customers in Europe, Russia, North America, Brazil and Turkey with annual revenues exceeding 130 billion EUR.
“In a short span of time, AutoGrid has established itself as a leader in Big Data analytics for the energy industry,” said Dan Ahn, managing director at Voyager Capital. “We are very proud to have been working with this outstanding team since the very beginning. Big Data driven predictive analytics and automated control of complex industrial processes is one of the largest economic opportunities of our time, and AutoGrid’s Energy Data Platform is well positioned to play a defining role in this sector.”
“Foundation Capital has been fortunate to back several successful smart grid pioneers — from EnerNOC to eMeter and Silver Spring Networks — and we’re thrilled to continue to build out the next wave of innovation with our investment in the outstanding team and technology at AutoGrid,” said Steve Vassallo, general partner at Foundation Capital.
AutoGrid’s Energy Data Platform is a highly scalable and secure big data analytics platform that analyzes the complex interrelationships within the energy supply chain through the petabytes of structured and unstructured data coming from smart meters, building management systems, M2M systems and other assets. The forecasts generated by EDP create a comprehensive portrait of grid activity that let generators, utilities, energy service providers and electricity users to predict and manage power distribution and consumption in a precise, secure manner.
Predictive control applications built on EDP allow power providers to curb peak power, balance supply and demand in real-time, detect theft or identify outages by utilizing data spread across different business units and data silos. Based on open standards such as OpenADR 2.0 b, Smart Energy Profile 2.0, and through an extensive library of interfaces to existing AMI systems, behind-the-meter devices, building management systems, grid sensors and weather services, EDP is able to bring data together from millions of devices from over 100 different vendors and process it in real-time.
AutoGrid’s Demand Response Optimization and Management System (DROMS), a demand response management application based on EDP, costs up to 90 percent less to implement than conventional demand response management systems, supports the entire spectrum of behavioral and automated demand response programs in a unified manner, and yields up to 30 percent more power per demand response event by utilizing EDP’s advanced forecasting and customer analytics capabilities.
The company’s breakthrough technology enjoys substantial momentum in the marketplace with several significant customer wins:
- City of Palo Alto Utilities implemented a demand response program for commercial customers in under 30 days. Ordinary demand response systems would have taken months to implement. The program saves an average of 1.2 megawatts per event.
- Austin Energy created a “Bring Your Own Thermostat” demand response program with AutoGrid that linked to thermostats consumers bought at retail. The system has cut HVAC loads by up to 33% in subject homes. EVs also can link to the system so drivers can make money by delaying charging.
- Silver Spring Networks, a leader in smart meter technologies, utilizes AutoGrid’s Energy Data Platform within their UtilityIQ Demand Optimizer product.
- Oklahoma Gas and Electric employs AutoGrid’s Energy Data Platform to reach over 70,000 customers in one of the world’s largest two-way communicating thermostat-based residential demand response programs.
- NTT DATA, one of the largest IT service providers in the world, utilizes Energy Data Platform to build new applications in the energy management space.
- Schneider Electric, a global smart grid leader, is utilizing Energy Data Platform for providing demand response functionality within the Wiser home management system.
AutoGrid is also collaborating with industry leaders such SAP, Big Data Energy Services, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Department of Energy, and the California Energy Commission, among others, on new applications and opportunities for EDP and DROMS.
“We are proud to receive a strategic investment from E.ON, one of the most respected global leaders in the energy world,” said Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of AutoGrid Systems. “This investment will help accelerate our mission of turning Big Data into the cheapest, cleanest and most reliable source of power.”
The company will also discuss a new strategic initiative at DistribuTECH taking place in San Antonio, Texas January 28 through 30, 2014.
About AutoGrid Systems
AutoGrid is dedicated to bringing the power of Big Data, predictive analytics and Internet scale computational techniques to the production and consumption of electricity. Serving utilities of all sizes, grid operators, electricity retailers, ESCO services companies, and end-users, AutoGrid develops and markets services that both help lower costs and improve reliability of the electricity supply chain. For more information, visit www.auto-grid.com.
Press Contact:
Michael Kanellos
Eastwick
(415) 820-4176
Kanellos@eastwick.com
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