Power-Grid International/Renewable Energy World: GridUnity selected to receive nearly $50M in federal funds for its solution to speed up interconnection
GridUnity’s head of Sales Ashley Kelley and head of product strategy Robert Sherick were interviewed by Power-Grid International and Renewable Energy World about the just-announced $49.5 million grant awarded to the company under the GRIP program. From the article:
“Interconnection is really where the bottleneck is,” notices GridUnity head of sales Ashley Kelly. “Our software platform streamlines that process.”
“We’ve got a purpose-built solution focused on load and generation interconnection on both the transmission and distribution side,” expounds Sherick.
GridUnity’s Digital Integration for Grid Interconnection Tools, Analysis, and Logic (DIGITAL) project allows visibility of the full end-to-end process from pre-application to permission to operate. The company’s interconnection solution is among 38 projects chosen to receive funding through the Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovations Partnerships (GRIP) program. Nearly $2 billion in new awards spanning initiatives in 42 states and Washington, D.C. were announced today. The funding will go toward protecting the grid against growing threats of extreme weather, lowering electricity costs for communities, and increasing capacity to meet load growth stemming from the recent rise of manufacturing, data centers, and electrification.
DOE received applications requesting more than seven times the funding available in this round, even after doling out $3.5B for 58 projects last October and $2.2B more in August of this year.
“We kind of appreciate the fact that it was highly competitive and that lots of folks are looking for federal funding,” Sherick offers.