Bidgely today announced that, in 2023, the company achieved its highest ever new annual sales. A significant proportion of this uptick was driven by Bidgely’s existing customer base expanding their adoption of Bidgely’s energy artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. The company also closed its largest new customer sales, entering partnerships with nearly a dozen new energy providers in new regions and markets around the world. With this growth, Bidgely is well-positioned to become profitable in 2024.
“The increasing number of customers choosing to expand their solutions across multiple grid and customer use cases with us proves utilities prefer and value a well-designed platform approach. They’re accomplishing the same outcomes from one vendor with less IT burden and lower costs overall,” said Abhay Gupta, CEO of Bidgely. “To this effect, we continue to see utilities combine programs into one consolidated journey to bridge the gap between the customer and grid sides of the meter.”
For example, one East Coast utility is expanding its partnership with Bidgely to execute an end-to-end energy efficiency solution that aligns with new time-of-use (TOU) regulatory priorities while continuing to promote significant energy savings and customer engagement. Backed by AI-powered energy insights, Bidgely’s Home Energy Reports, electric vehicle (EV) charging engagement tools and digital bill/usage alerts will help the utility’s customers better manage their energy usage, saving on electricity costs as well as building a more positive relationship with the utility.
Key Industry Evolutions from 2023
This growing adoption of Bidgely’s solutions is driven by several fundamental shifts in the utility industry. Firstly, utilities are facing more scrutiny from regulators than ever before when it comes to Integrated Resource Planning (IRP).
“Many utilities that don’t have access to big data-driven insights saw their IRP and grid asset investment budgets rejected by the regulators as the plans proposed over-investment without surgical planning,” said Gautam Aggarwal, chief revenue officer at Bidgely.
“In 2023, three of Bidgely’s utility customers used the company’s behind-the-meter asset intelligence for both appliances and distributed energy resources (DERs) to gain distribution asset capacity insights,” continued Aggarwal. “By understanding which premises and circuits are causing peak loads on grid assets, these customers are able to integrate DER growth analysis into grid planning, asset capacity management as well as non-wire alternative planning into distribution system planning.”
“Bidgely’s grid planning tools eliminate the blind spots and provide utilities with data that can support their investment plans to ensure regulators recognize that the plan is optimized for cost,” concluded Aggarwal.
Another ongoing industry trend is the increased adoption of next generation smart meters that will leverage AI at the edge to generate insights, especially as DERs gain traction. In 2023, Bidgely partnered with an industry-leading smart meter technology portfolio company to launch one of the first working Distributed Intelligence (DI) applications on its next-generation smart meters. With this strategic partnership, Bidgely added real-time EV and solar awareness and targeting on the smart meters to better serve in-the-moment peak-time charging and load management decisions. The two companies successfully launched the offering with a southeastern utility, and an additional two utilities are in the active pilot phase.
Finally, utilities continued signing up for EV managed charging projects, most of which stayed in the pilot phase with only a small percentage of EV owners opting in as consumers remain wary of relinquishing control of their EV chargers to utilities. Bidgely’s holistic end-to-end EV solution allows utilities to detect EVs on the grid with 90+ percent accuracy, decode charging behavior, and target/engage the right customers. The solution uses a combination of opt-in (telematics) and opt-out (non-telematics) approaches thereby ensuring large user participation and maximum load shift at one-third the cost compared to other non-targeted EV managed charging solutions. Four of Bidgely’s utility partners are already benefiting from this comprehensive and cost effective solution.
UtilityAI™ Platform Expansions
In addition to providing its utility partners with industry-leading customer experience and energy efficiency solutions, Bidgely successfully launched and deployed a suite of new AI-powered offerings aimed at addressing utilities’ most pressing initiatives in 2023, including:
- Enhanced small and medium-sized business (SMB) energy support tools. Five utility customers including a West Coast energy provider have partnered with Bidgely to adopt these tools to increase SMB engagement through enhanced targeting, enrollment, and program adoption strategies.
- Behind-the-Meter (BTM) targeting to support electrification, fuel-switching, heat pump adoption, and inefficient appliance upgrade initiatives as well as provide a non-telematics approach to EV load management.
- DER Grid Planning, including ‘8760 Energy Insights,’ which enables utilities to identify trends, predict future grid patterns, and better understand the load impact on grid-facing assets with greater precision, flexibility, and agility.
Global Expansions
In addition to strengthening relationships with its North American customers, Bidgely also expanded its global footprint.
Bidgely has been awarded large multiyear, multimillion dollar deals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), expanding their UtilityAI solution to serve smart meter data in UAE and building momentum in the broader Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The company also signed a partnership with Moro Hub, a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, and the digital arm of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) (PJSC). Bidgely is also in the process of signing large, multiyear contracts in Europe and Australia.
In the newly-emerging markets like India, Bidgely has developed and field validated its theft detection solution with large state-owned utilities. India suffers from a USD 10 billion energy theft problem, which is one of the main drivers of smart meter adoption in the country.
Industry Leadership and Accolades
Bidgely was once again recognized as a “Leader” in customer engagement by both Guidehouse Insights and IDC MarketScape. The company was also named a finalist in the S&P Global Energy Awards ‘Grid Edge’ category for the third consecutive year.
Bidgely also hosted two UtilityAI Executive Innovation Collaborative (UEIC) events in 2023. In roundtable and workshop sessions, Bidgely led discussions with executives from organizations such as Duke Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority, Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), NV Energy, Rocky Mountain Power, PacifiCorp, Avista, FortisBC, Ameren, SDGE, OG&E and others.
To learn how utilities worldwide are leveraging AI-powered energy insights, read Empowering Utilities with True, Behind-the-Meter Disaggregation: Bidgely’s Proven Approach and Real-World Impact.
