The utility’s corporate venture arm, National Grid Partners, is reserving $100m for AI deals as it looks to tackle electrification and the energy needs of data centres.
Electric and gas utility National Grid’s corporate venture arm became the latest CVC fund to carve out a specific pot of money for AI investments this week. The company is allocating $100m specifically for these technologies, which it hopes will help it upgrade power grids to cope with unprecedented new levels of demand.
“AI is helping us improve operations and achieve efficiencies we never could with legacy technologies,” said NGP president Steve Smith. “Our AI-powered portfolio is doing everything from accelerating critical construction timelines to boosting transmission line capacity for National Grid.”
National Grid, which operates gas and electricity networks in the UK and US, is, like many other power utilities, seeing its networks coming under pressure from power-hungry data centres, charging demands for electric vehicles and the need to connect renewable energy producers.
The AI investment capital will come out of NGP’s existing allocation of $50m to $60m each year, a spokesperson told GCV, and the move comes three months after the unit’s total investments passed $500m.
NGP has already supplied over $150m in cash for 18 AI-focused startups which make up just over a third of its portfolio. Those include infrastructure risk management startup Urbint and Exodigo, which combines AI and sensors to eliminate underground missteps during infrastructure work.
The first new investment made under the plan is in Amperon, the US-based developer of an analytics software platform that uses AI to forecast energy demand. The grid’s increasing complexity makes forecasting more important for load balancing, and NGP said it sees “significant potential” for Amperon’s technology in the US and UK.
“Power systems like National Grid’s are seeing unprecedented challenges, with soaring demand driven by data centres and the electrification of heat and transport, as well as requirements for a more flexible grid with the rise of renewables and EVs,” said National Grid CEO John Pettigrew when announcing the allocation.
“We are seeing artificial intelligence play a vital role resolving these issues and delivering compelling results across our operations. Scaling AI will continue to help National Grid provide the most efficient, modern grid available for our millions of customers in the US and UK.”
Robert Lavine
Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.