On the anniversary of our biggest blackout ever, are we on the road to another?
When I was a kid in rural Virginia, losing electricity was a yearly event around Christmas. Situated on the outskirts of a large utility’s territory, my family was among the last to have its power restored when, inevitably, a big winter storm knocked trees onto lines around the county. So for a day or two, or even a week, the daily entree was grilled cheese from the fireplace, and we all went to bed early.
Was… Continue Reading
Eka Systems raises $18.5M for smart metering
Eka Systems, a Germantown, Maryland-based utility metering company, has completed a $18.5 million fourth round of funding, led by Flybridge Capital Partners. Returning investors included RockPort Capital Partners, The Westly Group and Metropolitan Investments.
Eka’s scalable smart networking technology allows utilities to monitor and analyze their energy consumption on a near real-time basis. It also helps them cut down on costs by preventing leaks and detecting outages.
Its submetering systems can be installed in residential and commercial… Continue Reading
Optimal Technologies: Offers a “brain” for the nation’s electrical grid
Today’s electrical grid is frustratingly opaque.
Electrical utilities across the U.S. — and the world — often don’t know what the overall grid looks like. The grid is siloed into sections. Electricity can’t be evenly distributed between regions.
So recently, new startups have flocked to try to make the grid more efficient. One company is Optimal Technologies. CEO Roland Schoettle says Optimal wants to provide the “tools” for utilities and other start-ups to do so.
What’s needed,… Continue Reading
Optimal Technologies raises $25M for grid efficiency
Optimal Technologies International is a software and technology provider for electrical utilities and consumers. It promises to improve efficiency and reduce consumption.
The company’s AEMPFAST product is an analytics program for utilities that tells the system where to send electricity. Optimal claims that utilities that have installed its technology increase capacity by at least 10 percent, and lower greenhouse gas output by some 30 percent.
SUREFAST is Optimal’s consumer-oriented product. Able to scale to a single home… Continue Reading