National Grid Partners has announced a commitment to invest $100 million in artificial intelligence (AI) startups that are advancing the future of energy.
The funds will develop a more efficient, resilient and dynamic grid that supports economic growth, reduces customer costs, helps meet climate goals and ensures energy security. Additionally, National Grid Partners also announced its investment in Amperon, a provider of AI-powered energy forecasting and analytics solutions. Amperon's technology helps utilities manage demand and ensure grid reliability.
"Power systems like National Grid's are seeing unprecedented challenges, with soaring demand driven by datacenters and the electrification of heat and transport, as well as requirements for a more flexible grid with the rise of renewables and EVs," said John Pettigrew, CEO of National Grid plc. "We are seeing artificial intelligence play a vital role resolving these issues and delivering compelling results across our operations and scaling AI will continue to help National Grid provide the most efficient, modern grid available for our millions of customers in the U.S. and U.K."
National Grid Partners invests in many technologies to deliver rapid impact for utilities and the broader energy sector. More than 80% of its portfolio companies are strategically engaged with National Grid business units to streamline operations, boost safety and reliability, improve customer service and speed the development of tomorrow's energy networks.
Examples include:
- AiDASH unites satellite data with proprietary AI to help utilities monitor infrastructure networks in real time. By rapidly identifying potentially hazardous trees near power lines and prioritizing them for removal, National Grid has seen outages drop by 30% since deploying AiDASH in Massachusetts.
- Exodigo uses AI and advanced sensors to see underground, avoiding costly missteps when expanding energy infrastructure. In New York, National Grid has deployed Exodigo to accelerate electric substation and transmission line expansion by discovering and avoiding buried obstacles.
- Luminance develops legal-grade AI to automate and augment every touchpoint a business has with its contracts. National Grid uses its platform to streamline negotiation and analysis of contracts and other legal documents critical to accelerating the deployment of clean energy and smart grid assets.
- Sensat uses AI to help owners of critical infrastructure visualize and collaborate via digital twins, resulting in faster project completion and lowered costs. National Grid has deployed Sensat in the UK to speed substation upgrades and connect data centers to the grid; this has resulted in fewer contractor errors, increased worker safety and weeks pared from the traditional surveying process.
- Urbint develops an AI-based risk management platform to predict threats to critical infrastructure and worker safety. National Grid has deployed Urbint's solution to reduce costly and dangerous pipeline damage from third-party excavation. Urbint also helped National Grid identify 35% more potential field-worker hazards than manual methods, boosting employee safety across the utility's U.S. service territory.
"AI is helping us improve operations and achieve efficiencies we never could with legacy technologies," said Steve Smith, President of National Grid Partners and Chief Strategy and Regulation Officer at National Grid. "Our AI-powered portfolio is doing everything from accelerating critical construction timelines to boosting transmission line capacity for National Grid and with more than 120 other global utilities in our NextGrid Alliance, we're speeding these innovations across the industry.
