AVANGRID Employees and Students Team Up to Tackle Energy Solutions for Tomorrow’s ‘Smart Cities’
November 19 2018 - 2:52PM
Business Wire
Five Teams Competed to Deliver Winning Proposal
for Smart Energy Urban Infrastructure During Second Annual
Innovation Challenge
Employees from AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) and students from
leading U.S. universities teamed up Friday to tackle energy
solutions for tomorrow’s Smart Cities.
“Smart Cities” was the theme of AVANGRID’s 2nd Annual Innovation
Challenge, held at the Yale School of Management in New Haven,
Connecticut. Teams from cities across AVANGRID’s service territory
competed for prizes of over $32,000 — plus an opportunity to have
their proposals advanced and implemented by AVANGRID. The event was
the culmination of months of research by five teams of AVANGRID
employees collaborating with students from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Yale and Cornell.
“As AVANGRID leads the transformation to a more sustainable,
clean-energy future, we’ve challenged our employees and partners to
provide a vision for the smarter energy infrastructure that our
cities and communities will rely on,” said James Torgerson, CEO of
AVANGRID. “This is our opportunity to strategically rethink how the
energy sector will forge solutions to tomorrow’s challenges —
today.”
Each of the five teams pitched business proposals to the
audience of AVANGRID executives and academic and business partners
highlighting the future role of energy companies in a Smart City.
The teams explored the potential impacts of “smart” technology in
various urban centers:
- 100 Percent Renewable Energy (Portland, Oregon)
- Smart Data (New Haven, Connecticut)
- Transportation Electrification (Portland, Maine)
- Smarter Power Grids (Ithaca, New York)
- Bulk Clean Energy Solutions for the more than 1,000 cities and
towns AVANGRID companies serve.
Each proposal was judged on environmental, social and financial
benefits to Smart City residents. The winning team was Charge UP
Portland, who proposed a “Vehicle to Grid” pilot project with
Portland METRO to develop electric buses that also serve a role in
electricity distribution which would maximize benefits to the METRO
riders and operations, minimize costs to Central Maine Power
customers, balance load and align with the United Nations’
Sustainability Development Goals. Each member of the winning team
will receive a $2,500 cash prize, and the students on the winning
team will each receive an additional $10,000 in tuition assistance
for 2019.
In addition to Friday’s competition, the event included speakers
who addressed innovation and technology in the power and utility
sectors. Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental
Affairs Matthew A. Beaton offered a vision for a clean energy
future in his state; Paul D. Sclavounos, PhD. Professor of
Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture at MIT, shared
insights on future technology for Offshore Wind; and Rodrigo
Canales, Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale School of
Management, presented his research on Design Thinking and the power
of reframing how we think about innovation for Agile
Organizations.
The Innovation Forum was the culmination of a week of exciting
activities, kicked off by the inaugural “ITechSHOWS” at Yale
University. The ITechSHOWS brings IT and companies like SAP, IBM,
Accenture, Deloitte, ESRI, Cognizant, Wipro and Everis together to
share key trends and technologies that drive success at a leading
energy company like AVANGRID.
AVANGRID also showcased its key collaborations with top
universities.
- MIT startup NeuroMesh, working with AVANGRID partners Cisco
Systems and smart meter manufacturer ITRON, presented a proof of
concept that utilizes blockchain technology to improve
cybersecurity.
- Representatives from Yale’s Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking
shared how augmented and virtual reality modeling can be used in
the future for microgrid design and utility system operators.
- The winning AVANGRID Challenge student team from the recent MIT
Energy Hackathon also shared an energy storage deployment strategy
for offshore wind.
Startups from MIT and Yale were also invited to share their
ideas to innovate in the energy sector. The startups included:
- Heila Technologies, presenting a customer-centric distributed
energy platform (MIT)
- Form Energy, with a tool for energy storage optimization
(MIT)
- Raise Green, presenting a financial technology platform for
green projects (Yale)
As the U.S. affiliate of the Iberdrola Group, AVANGRID shares
the global organization’s commitment to spearheading the digital
transformation through innovation.
The following students participated in the Smart Cities
Competition:
MIT: Ignacio Ortega Castineiras and Jose D Soto Rivera
Yale University: Jessica Harpole, Sophie Tyack, Sara Harari, and
Amanda Faulkner
Cornell University: Venktesh Vidyadhar Katkar, and Azhir
Barodawala.
About AVANGRID: AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) is a leading,
sustainable energy company with approximately $32 billion in assets
and operations in 24 U.S. states. AVANGRID has two primary lines of
business: Avangrid Networks and Avangrid Renewables. Avangrid
Networks owns eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving 3.2
million customers in New York and New England. Avangrid Renewables
owns and operates 7.1 gigawatts of electricity capacity, primarily
through wind power, with a presence in 22 states across the United
States. AVANGRID employs approximately 6,500 people. AVANGRID
supports the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals, received a
Climate Development Project climate score of “A-,” the top score
received in the utilities sector, and has been recognized for two
consecutive years by Ethical Boardroom as the North American
utility with the “best corporate governance practices.” For more
information, visit www.avangrid.com.
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Media Contact:Ed
Crowdered.crowder@avangrid.com203.499.2537
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