Varentec, a startup company seeking to introduce its Edge of Network Grid Optimization technology that has the potential to save industrial and utility companies millions of dollars, has received another injection of cash from Khosla Ventures and Microsoft’s Bill Gates of about $8 million. After several successful pilot programs in the United States and Mexico, the technology is now poised to move into its production phase.
The basis of the power analytics software is to save energy by determining the location of problems on a utility company’s power grid, but doing so without having to install monitoring sensors at every location on the grid. Instead, specific problem areas are defined, and are where the sensors will be placed. The target market for this technology is outdated legacy systems present at industrial sites throughout the world.
Specific to the introduction of the technology to the market, updating utility companies is perhaps the biggest barrier to moving forward at an accelerated pace. Electricity companies will increasingly depend on data provided by such analytics to optimize grid performance.