Student Teams Compete in National Electricity Innovation Competition
February 24 2015 - 11:00AM
Business Wire
In Partnership with Spark Clean Energy, ComEd
and Exelon Award $20,000 in Prizes to Young Energy Innovation
Thought-Leaders
More than 40 students from universities across the United States
submitted concepts to the 2014 “[Em]Powering Grid Resilience
Student Innovation Competition.” Undergraduate and graduate
students were invited to submit ideas to build a more “resilient
and climate-ready” electricity grid with technologies such as
drones, smartphone apps, and social media analytics. The
competition was organized by Spark Clean Energy and sponsored by
Chicago-based electric utility ComEd and its parent company,
Exelon, the nation’s leading competitive energy provider.
Eighteen teams including those from Cornell University, Illinois
Institute of Technology, Middlebury College, Duke University,
University of Southern California, Stevens Institute of Technology,
and the University of Michigan participated in this ideation
competition designed to bring diverse teams together to develop
innovative ideas and solutions to address challenges facing the
modern electricity grid. Submissions were judged by an expert panel
including representatives from the think tank Rocky Mountain
Institute, energy technology research firm GTM Research, venture
capital fund Energy Foundry, as well as executives from ComEd and
Exelon. The first, second, and third place teams were awarded cash
prizes and presented their ideas at the 2015 ARPA-E Energy
Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. on February 9.
Mark Silberg, Executive Director of Spark Clean Energy,
described the competition as a unique opportunity for graduate and
undergraduate students to grapple with energy innovation. “Spark
Clean Energy seeks to strengthen the innovation pipeline on college
campuses and connect students with leaders across the energy
sector. That’s why we are tremendously excited to partner with
ComEd and Exelon to showcase the great work of students designing
real-world solutions. We are proud to continue supporting student
researchers, entrepreneurs, and thought-leaders.”
Val Jensen, senior vice president of Customer Operations at
ComEd added, “Innovation fuels the evolution of the electric power
industry, and there are few investments that can return more when
we build the right collaborations. We applaud the top three teams,
and all the participants, for their leadership in this area.”
“Innovation is key to creating a more resilient and responsive
electrical grid and better serving our customers,” said Sonny Garg,
senior vice president and chief information and innovation officer
of Exelon. “We congratulate the winners of the Spark Clean Energy
competition and are excited to learn from their ideas.”
Team eRespond, from University of Southern California,
integrated social media analytics with storm assessment technology
to improve utility storm response and enhance customer engagement.
They were awarded first place after an hour-long interview with
judges. According to eRespond team member Louie Sloss, “We feel
that the entire competition has been a fantastic opportunity and
outlet for our ideas in the energy sector. It was particularly
enlightening to get to discuss the details of our concept with the
knowledgeable and experienced judging panel that Spark Clean Energy
was able to assemble.” His teammate Payam Yeganeh continues, “[the
competition was] different from other new venture seed or business
plan competitions. Our team tackled a real wicked problem that is
affecting thousands of people, and we could work out a solution to
mitigate it.”
Forrest Carroll, a student at Middlebury College, reflected,
“This competition was a great starting point that has already
launched me into analyses of utility customer needs, local and
national behavioral demand response programs, and the growing
importance of grid resilience in the face of climate change and the
concomitant increases in extreme weather events."
Below are the profiles of the first, second, and third place
teams:
First place: eRespond, University of Southern California
eRespond enables effective use of social media as a two-way
collaborative communication channel between utility and its
consumers during and after a weather event. The core of system is
social media analytics and integration of storm assessment
technologies including unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to improve
storm response and enhance customer engagement.
Second place: EnerGage, Cornell University
EnerGage is an interactive smartphone app that helps communities
work together. It provides a compelling value-add for customers by
helping them save energy, prepare for the storm, and weather it. In
turn, the utility increases its engagement with its customers,
strengthening the utility’s value proposition in an increasingly
disruptive industry.
Third place: ReGrid, Middlebury College
ReGrid was designed to fill the correspondence and convenience
gaps faced by electricity stakeholders while simultaneously
empowering consumers to make informed choices about energy use. The
app is a one-stop-shop that aggregates customer payments and energy
use, and it provides an additional platform for the exchange of
information during outages.
To learn more about this competition and the winning teams,
visit SparkCleanEnergy.org.
Spark Clean EnergyButch Frey, (513)
602-8824butch@sparkcleanenergy.org
Exelon (NYSE:EXC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Exelon (NYSE:EXC)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024