News

Can AI chips make the grid smarter? Utilidata raises $60M to find out.

Renown Capital Partners Backs Power-Grid AI Company Utilidata

Providence, RI – April 29 – Utilidata, a leader in edge AI technology, announced today that it has secured $60.3 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Renown Capital Partners–an investment firm focused on growth-stage technology companies helping to secure an efficient, affordable, and reliable energy system–with participation from Quanta, NVIDIA, and existing investor Keyframe Capital. Citigroup acted as sole placement agent to Utilidata on the transaction. This funding will enable Utilidata to rapidly scale Karman, its distributed AI platform developed in collaboration with NVIDIA over the last four years. Built on a custom NVIDIA module based on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano edge AI platform, Karman can be embedded in any device connected to the energy system.

“With this round of financing, Utilidata is positioned to deliver a major breakthrough in how the world manages power across the entire energy ecosystem,” said

 James McIntyre, Co-Founder, CIO & Managing Partner at Renown Capital.

 “By bringing artificial intelligence to the edge of the grid, Utilidata’s Karman platform will help deliver unprecedented efficiency, resilience, and security to energy infrastructure across the world.”

Rapid growth in data center power demand alone is creating new constraints for grid operators and hyperscalers. By 2030, it is estimated that data center power demand will 

. This growth combined with the global clean energy transition is creating increased complexity on the grid, requiring new and advanced solutions, like edge AI. By enabling high power compute and AI capabilities to be embedded directly into grid infrastructure and data centers, Karman unlocks grid capacity, increases reliability, and reduces carbon emissions.

Utilidata’s Karman platform is now available for purchase directly from Advantech, the global leader in IoT intelligent systems and embedded platform. This will make it easy for any hardware partners to embed Karman into their equipment. 

 is already working with Utilidata to embed Karman into smart meters for electric utilities.

Utilidata’s strategic partnerships are designed to support utilities through every phase of implementing edge AI at scale. The company announced last year a

 first-of-its-kind collaboration with Deloitte

 to support clients in navigating the modern power grid and has now partnered with 

 to support the deployment of AI-enabled infrastructure at scale.

“Quanta’s expertise in electric infrastructure deployment positions us to help Utilidata scale AI across the grid,” said 

Andrew Schwaitzberg, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Quanta Services.

 “We look forward to showcasing the power of edge AI at the Quanta Advanced Training Center, and working with our customers and partners to modernize infrastructure. By enabling AI onto the physical grid, we can continue to support infrastructure that is more reliable and resilient as our customers’ needs grow.”

These investments, which will help scale Karman, come as several megatrends converge, including the rise of data centers and growing power demand. Quanta Services brings deep expertise in deploying power grid infrastructure and will play a critical role in ensuring that grid modernization keeps pace with the growing demands. NVIDIA’s AI innovations will help advance the transformative potential of Karman at the grid edge.

"Electricity has gone from being abundant and predictable to scarce and increasingly unpredictable,” said 

 “That paradigm shift requires fundamentally new technology and deeper industry collaboration. We’re bringing together a powerful coalition of partners who are committed to scaling AI across the grid to build a modern and dynamic energy system.”

“By embedding AI and accelerated computing at the grid’s edge, Utilidata is unlocking critical insights and enabling utilities and industries to make smarter, more informed decisions,” said 

 “These new capabilities, which don’t exist today, will allow the energy industry to do more with existing infrastructure – tapping into valuable capacity on the grid at a time when load is growing rapidly for the first time in decades. 

Utilidata is bringing edge AI to energy infrastructure, starting with smart meters. The company’s distributed AI platform, Karman, is built on a custom NVIDIA module that makes it easy to embed AI capabilities into any grid-connected device.

Utilidata Raises $60 Million to Scale Distributed AI Across Energy Infrastructure

The U.S. Department of Energy today selected Consumers Energy to receive a nearly $20 million financial assistance award to deploy new technology and provide real-time visibility into the grid and help integrate electric vehicles into Michigan's electric grid. The commitment will be matched by $20 million from Consumers Energy as it powers Michigan's EV transformation.

Consumers Energy will use the nearly $40 million to add artificial intelligence-powered modules to 18,000 electric meters that are used by Michigan EV owners, providing real-time data analytics and predictions to better understand the impact these vehicles have on the electric grid.

"Consumers Energy is building a stronger grid and a smarter one that will seamlessly power the next generation of clean vehicles," said Lauren Snyder, Consumers Energy's vice president of customer experience. "This allows us to quickly put the latest in technology to work, as we accommodate growing numbers of EVs parked in driveways across our state."

The new federal funding comes through the U.S. Department of Energy's 

Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) Program

, which supports the modernization of the nation's electric grid.

Consumers Energy is partnering with AI technology company 

 to deploy custom NVIDIA modules, bringing cutting edge AI capabilities to the electric grid. Utilidata manufactures in Michigan at their innovation lab in Ann Arbor and in collaboration with Brooks Utility Products in Novi. 

The effort will place over half of the devices in economically disadvantaged communities, enabling Consumers Energy to better understand EV adoption and customize customer programs to meet those communities' needs.

Consumers Energy also is partnering with General Motors, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, the Electric Power Research Institute and others to deploy AI-enabled grid-edge analytics.

"Utilidata is proud to expand our presence in Michigan by partnering with industry leader Consumers Energy," said Utilidata President and Chief Operating Officer Jess Melanson. "Utilidata's distributed AI technology will equip Consumers Energy with the tools needed to integrate more distributed energy resources and ensure the electric grid is efficient and reliable for their customers."

Consumers Energy is making EV ownership more affordable and convenient wherever people drive their vehicles in Michigan. Electric vehicles will be powered by an electric grid that is moving fast to become carbon neutral.

Consumers Energy is Michigan's largest energy provider, providing natural gas and/or electricity to 6.8 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties. Consumers Energy's Clean Energy Plan calls for eliminating coal as an energy source in 2025, achieving net-zero carbon emissions and meeting 90% of customers' energy needs through clean sources, including wind and solar.

Consumers Energy Selected by U.S. Department of Energy for Nearly $20 Million to Add Real-Time Visibility to Grid

Deloitte today announced a first-of-its-kind collaboration with Utilidata, aimed at transforming the utility industry by leveraging AI and data capabilities for intelligent power grid solutions. By combining Deloitte's deep data science and energy industry experience and incorporating NVIDIA's accelerated computing and AI software platform, as well as the Utilidata Karman platform, the new initiative will support clients as they navigate the modern power grid, enhancing the use of renewable energy sources with real-time, actionable insights powered by AI and low-latency edge computing.


"Optimizing energy systems is imperative for intelligent grid infrastructure — the balancing act is between reliability, resilience and sustainability," said Khalid Behairy, AI practice leader for power, utilities and renewables and managing director, Deloitte Consulting LLP. "Through our new collaboration with Utilidata and NVIDIA, we can bring our industry advantage, redefine energy management and help create a more digitized, decentralized, and sustainable energy ecosystem."


As the U.S. power grid modernizes to adapt to the decentralization of energy generation and the dynamic patterns of consumption driven by electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy sources, traditional methods of grid operation no longer provide the dependability required for this critical infrastructure.


Smart grid implementation can create more flexible and efficient energy ecosystems through meter-to-transformer mapping, real-time hosting capacity, and distributed energy resource (DER) management. 

Deloitte's recent distributed energy resources report

 shows residential DER capacity could grow to 1,500 GW over the next decade and surpass a doubled peak demand.

Deloitte's collaboration with Utilidata and NVIDIA will help address this challenge by deploying distributed AI-driven analytics at the grid edge, where power is increasingly generated and stored. This custom module and platform — powered by the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform and embedded in electricity meters and backed by Deloitte's technology and engineering domain — transforms each meter into a data collection and control point, capable of handling thousands of data points per second. By providing real-time insights that enhance the resiliency and sustainability of energy systems, utilities companies can reduce energy demand forecasting latency, improve response time and field team efficiency, and increase grid safety and uptime.


"The electricity grid is becoming more complex with distributed energy resources, and scaling requires collaboration between global leaders," said Marc Spieler, senior director, energy, NVIDIA. "Working with Deloitte will enable utilities to use a truly open platform to achieve their decarbonization and electrification goals at scale."


"Our goal is to bring the best tools and outcomes to the market as the energy industry races to decarbonize and electrify," said Jess Melanson, president and chief operating officer, Utilidata. "By teaming with NVIDIA and Deloitte, we continue to break down barriers to make it easier to deploy AI at the grid edge to help solve the industry's biggest challenges."


The deployment of AI-enabled smart meters exemplifies how AI and edge computing capabilities enable grid operators to meet rising energy demand from homes and businesses, all while advancing decarbonization, affordability and resilience goals, and enhancing consumer experience. Utilidata and NVIDIA are also working to embed Utilidata's custom NVIDIA module with the Karman platform in other distribution grid devices, helping utilities leverage distributed AI for a wider range of grid planning and operational challenges.


By providing easy access to high-quality data and analysis in real-time, utilities can better understand and predict grid conditions, identify distributed energy resources and understand their impact, and reduce outages and equipment failure.


In addition to sustainability, intelligent grids can promote equity. Deloitte analysis found that if building sector decarbonization targets were met starting with low- and moderate-income customers, all energy-insecure households in every state could benefit from retrofitted, energy-efficient and cost-saving homes by 2035. Historic federal funding for grid investments alone could create 178,000 jobs in smart grid operations 

This announcement follows Deloitte's recent recognition as the 

2024 NVIDIA Global Consulting Partner of the Year

 for the fourth year in a row. Learn more about 

Deloitte's work with Utilidata and NVIDIA


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Utilidata is an AI-powered technology company providing utilities with robust, real-time insights to operate a connected grid. The company's distributed AI platform, Karman, provides unparalleled processing power to the electric distribution grid to accelerate decarbonization and better serve people.



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