WELCOME TO INCUBATENERGY LABS

Incubatenergy® Labs is built for startups to engage utilities in paid demonstration projects. A utilities summit and collaborative demonstrations program in one, the program links startup companies leading the advancement of electrification, decarbonization and grid modernization with utilities from around the world that have the capacity and desire to demonstrate and scale those innovations. We structured the program to give you maximum exposure to utilities and ensure that the results of a successful demonstration with one utility turns into opportunities with many.

Finalists for 2020 Labs Challenge Announced

Participation in


Through Incubatenergy Labs, EPRI and a group of leading utilities are engaging early stage companies to demonstrate and deploy innovative solutions in targeted areas. Incubatenergy Labs is your opportunity to get behind the scenes with a number of the largest electric utilities in the U.S.

We’ll select a number of companies from Pitch Day to engage in paid demonstrations. There’s no set number of slots. It could be two, it could be the whole cohort. Last year, we chose six. For those demonstrations, we’re pushing ourselves to move fast and engage you as a group to facilitate the scale of promising approaches to modernize and decarbonize our grid, delight our customers, communities and workforce and build new business opportunities. We’ll spend four weeks scoping projects, twelve weeks executing them and showcasing the results at a Demo Day event.

Why Incubatenergy labs

  • Utility Exposure: Present and showcase to utilities and R&D experts from across the U.S.
  • Paid Demonstrations: Compete for paid demonstrations with leading utilities
  • Rapid Execution: Scope demonstrations in 4 weeks, execute in 12
  • Demonstrate with one, get traction with many: While companies generally engage a single utility in a demonstration, all participating utilities have access to the demonstration scope, progress, and results.

Successful candidates will access data, gather insights, scope demonstration trials, and test their products/services in live customer environments.

WHAT WE OFFER

Direct engagement with major utility business leaders and subject matter experts

Demonstration of your tech on-site with some of the largest energy providers in the U.S.

The opportunity to grow your catalog of contacts through EPRI’s Incubatenergy Network

Time to develop a relevant use case with senior stakeholders prior to Pitch Day

Engage utility and industry investment groups

Accelerated, paid demonstrations on-site between startups and utilities

ADVISORS


Selected startups will have access to experienced electric industry subject matter experts throughout the course of the LAB.

Steve Kidwell

Ameren (Business & Corporate Services), Vice President, Corporate Planning

Ram Sastry

AEP, VP Innovation and Technology

Amy Burke Henry

TVA, Director of Transformative Innovation

Arshad Mansoor

EPRI, President 

Go to Advisors Page

Topics OF INTEREST

IncubatenergyLabs is focused on the following innovation challenges:

Customer and Community Engagement

Customers and their satisfaction lie at the core of any business. As an industry, we want to be more proactive to better understand customer behavior, provide more personalized communications, and deliver the information they need and the services they value. Bring us your solutions that help us better understand and serve our customers and communities and empower them to become more proactive and informed participants in a cleaner, more integrated energy system. 

  • AI-enabled, interactive energy management platforms
  • Applications for the aggregation and management of connected energy devices
  • Price signaling or transactive energy platforms
  • Virtual Assistants, Automated Dispatch or other rapid response solutions

Digital Utility

It is said our grid looks much like it did a century ago. If they came back, we’d like to blow Edison and Tesla away. Digital overlays are fundamentally transforming the electric power system and we seek solutions that provide more automated and data-driven operations, maintenance, and planning while building a safer, more efficient, equitable, decentralized, and decarbonized grid that better serves our customers.

  • AI, machine learning, advanced sensors and analytics
  • Predictive maintenance, prognostics and planning
  • Digital twinning solutions for asset management
  • Resilient, secure communications to support ubiquitous connectivity  
Show ExamplesClose

Integration of Distributed Energy Resources

Since 2005, the US carbon footprint has dropped by about a gigaton; much of that in the electricity sector through efficiencies, renewables and the retirement of coal plants. To get the next gigaton, we need solutions that enable the optimized integration and management of more renewables, energy storage, electric devices and EVs in a manner that improves the operation and planning of the electricity grid while maintaining quality and reliability for customers and communities.  

  • Integrated DER management systems (DERMS), renewable generation, and demand response
  • Distributed ledger transactive energy platforms that enable fair compensation for owners of DERs 
  • Virtual power plant (VPP) and other non-wires alternatives for optimized aggregation and dispatch of DERs 
  • Integrated controls and data flows for more intelligent, coordinated system management
  • “Plug-and-play” residential energy storage systems and smart home energy management platforms

Electric Mobility

Electrifying the transportation sector is at the forefront of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions economy-wide. To accelerate the transition to cleaner transportation, we are seeking solutions that knock down the barriers to adoption, help customers make the switch to electric transportation and enable cost-effective and accessible charging with minimal impact on the grid.

  • Tools for EV fleet adoption, management and optimization
  • Peer-to-peer charging platforms and solutions for multi-unit dwellings
  • Monitoring and analytics tools for EV adoption, charging and use patterns 
  • Tools for managed charging, integration of DC fast charging and grid asset V2G solutions 
  • Technologies for high power charging, such as DC circuit breakers 

Customer and Community Resilience

Fires, extreme weather, and flooding are becoming all too common. Preparing for such events and keeping customers and communities safe, informed and with access to power through them is a top priority. Bring your solutions that help us prevent outages where possible and, when they happen, communicate with our customers and restore power quickly.

  • Distributed analytics and controls for balancing and operation of islanded microgrids
  • Solutions to inform resilience planning, aid situational awareness and automate communications and dispatch, 
  • “As-a-service” offerings for residential energy storage or on-site backup generation  
  • Solutions to keep customers updated and informed throughout restoration efforts

Workforce of the Future

Technology can help our workers perform their jobs more safely, efficiently, and effectively. Wearables, augmented reality, the convergence of information and operational technologies, the internet of things (IoT), and big data solutions are being combined in creative new ways to help our workforce thrive. We’d like to see what you have in this space. 

  • Wearables for personnel and/or environmental monitoring and safety
  • AR / VR solutions for immersive, remote training, information accessibility and increased efficiency in task execution
  • Digitial worker enhancements and remote, real-time assistance on complicated tasks 
  • Robotics and unmanned systems for completion of hazardous tasks

Open

Do you think we’re missing the boat on something? If you have a relevant technology that doesn’t fit into one of the areas above, we want to hear about it!


TIMELINE

APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN

Apply by Jan 17, 2020 for your spot in Incubatenergy® Labs

BOOTCAMP

Up to 30 teams will be selected to join Incubatenergy® Labs for a bootcamp to outline a clear use case for a paid demonstration project. 

PITCH DAY

Present at EPRI’s Electrification 2020 Conference and Exposition, get 1:1 interaction with utility innovation scouts, network with an expected 2,000 attendees, showcase in our Startup Pavilion on the expo floor, and receive an all-access pass to the conference. 

SCOPE

Companies selected out of Pitch Day will work with EPRI and utilities over four weeks to refine their use case and scope a 12-week demonstration project. 

EXECUTE

Projects kick off in May 2020 where you’ll work with EPRI and a lead utility on demonstration execution. During those 12 weeks, you’ll also engage the group of utilities and startups for project reviews and attend Venture Day with investors active in the utilities sector.

DEMO DAY

Demo Day celebrates all we achieved over the 12-week project period. You and the utility project lead will present the project and build interest in future engagement with EPRI and the participating utilities.

HOST UTILITIES


Participating Utilities

The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI, www.epri.com) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery and use of electricity for the benefit of the public. An independent, nonprofit organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity including reliability, efficiency, affordability, health, safety and the environment. EPRI also provides technology, policy and economic analyses to drive long-range research and development planning, and supports research in emerging technologies. EPRI members represent 90% of the electricity generated and delivered in the United States with international participation extending to 40 countries. EPRI’s principal offices and laboratories are located in Palo Alto, California; Charlotte, North Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Lenox, Massachusetts.

The Incubatenergy® Network is made up of leading clean energy incubators and accelerators from around the world which support more than 500 early-stage companies working in clean energy, transportation, built environment, precision agriculture and other electrification-focused sectors. Through Incubatenergy, EPRI has facilitated dozens of engagements of innovative startups collaborating with utilities and other industry stakeholders.