UtilityAPI secures $762,000 award from U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative to fund solar energy growth and expansion
California-based UtilityAPI has received a $762,000 cooperative award from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative to scale the growth of its digital platform and expand its customer base. Used by solar, storage, and energy management companies, UtilityAPI’s platform automatically collects and synthesizes data from utility companies. Customers can then use this information to create more accurate proposals, finance projects, and support customers after installation. The data that UtilityAPI collects empowers companies to evaluate homes and buildings for solar and other new energy technologies.
UtilityAPI is creating a secure and standardized data infrastructure for the evolving energy economy by automating the process of authorizing, collecting, and standardizing data formats for easy analysis. UtilityAPI unlocks data from the utility and gets it in the hands of companies that can actually use it: solar, energy storage, building management, and energy analytics companies. Their service quickly provides the most accurate data for modern energy companies to provide customer proposals, finance projects, and support customers after installation. UtilityAPI data includes the information necessary to make smart energy decisions.
The growth of new energy technologies is limited because there is no developer-friendly interface for collecting and standardizing customer data from utilities. UtilityAPI addresses this need by building a data-sharing infrastructure between utilities and new energy companies. Access to utility data means a larger sales funnel, a frictionless customer journey, and easy data verification for financing for solar, storage, and energy management companies.
“SunShot’s investment in UtilityAPI will help us meet the growing needs of the modern energy economy by expanding our service into new markets.” said Elena Lucas, UtilityAPI’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “We are building a smart and nimble team that is rapidly scaling solutions to the data-oriented challenges faced by the energy industry as it evolves. We are excited to receive support from the Department of Energy and hope to reduce soft costs by making Bill amounts, TOU and tier breakdown, Demand charges, PDF bills, 15-minute interval data, and tariff data available quickly and securely to clean energy companies that need the data to assess a project and measure savings.
The company is rapidly gaining traction. Many of the industry’s leaders are now incorporating UtilityAPI’s technology. In addition to the SunShot Award, UtilityAPI has raised funds from Better Ventures, the Schmidt Family Foundation, and additional private investors. UtilityAPI has also received support from former FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff.