Press Releases
10/15/2021
AVANGRID Awards Scholarships, Introduces inaugural MIT Professorship, Celebrates Ingenuity at Annual Innovation Forum
AVANGRID Awards Scholarships, Introduces inaugural MIT Professorship, Celebrates Ingenuity at Annual Innovation Forum
AVANGRID Awards Scholarships, Introduces inaugural MIT Professorship, Celebrates Ingenuity at Annual Innovation Forum
Company Showcases Innovative Projects Aimed at “Leading the Clean Energy Transition”
Orange, Conn. — Oct. 15, 2021 — AVANGRID (NYSE: AGR), a leading sustainable energy company, hosted its 5th annual Innovation Forum yesterday, with a theme of “Leading the Clean Energy Transition.” Each year, the event showcases the employees, projects and partnerships that help the company build a more sustainable, clean and connected, energy future.
“This year’s forum demonstrates many of the ways AVANGRID is using innovation and technology to better serve our customers, our stakeholders and our communities,” said Dennis V. Arriola, AVANGRID Chief Executive Officer. “Today’s energy sector is at an inflection point, where renewable energy, grid investements and advanced digital technologies are converging with customer demand for cleaner, more sustainable energy, and AVANGRID is leading this clean energy transition.”
AVANGRID spent approximately $80 million on innovation projects in 2020 and is on track to increase that in 2021. The company is the third largest renewables operator in the U.S. with approximately 7.9 GW of wind and solar generation, and a leader in the emerging offshore wind industry with 1.6 GW under contract, including its landmark 800 MW Vineyard Wind I project, which is a 50/50 joint venture with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
Some of the technology showcased at the Innovation Forum this year included low-earth-orbit satellites used for monitoring coastal marine life; machine learning tools that automate utility inspections, improve customer service, and provide new insights from advanced
weather forecasts; and some of the latest developments in green hydrogen electrolyzers technology, among many other innovations.
Green hydrogen is a hot topic in the energy sector and a new addition to AVANGRID’s Innovation Forum, spurred by its potential for decarbonizing hard-to-electrify energy uses. At Thursday’s forum, AVANGRID emphasized its commitment to lead the nascent green hydrogen economy by presenting updates on the green hydrogen project concepts the company submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy in a response to a July request for information on the technology.
AVANGRID celebrated its innovation culture at the event by featuring its collaborations with some of the world’s top academics in the field. The day’s agenda included presentations from researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Yale University, among others, on topics ranging from how the company will prepare its grid for a future where most vehicles are electric, to research quantifying the value that solar and battery storage technology could bring to the grid when implemented at scale. AVANGRID also took the opportunity to introduce its employees to Professor Andy Sun, who was recently named to the newly created Iberdrola-AVANGRID Professorship of Electric Power Systems at MIT.
AVANGRID’s collaboration with top universities also extends to students who participate in AVANGRID’s annual Innovation Challenge, which paired teams of students from Harvard University and MIT with AVANGRID employees to develop solutions to some of the energy sector’s biggest challenges. Each year, the audience at the Innovation Forum votes to determine the winning team in the challenge. This year’s winning team was led by Charles Hua, an undergraduate senior at Harvard University studying Math and Statistics with an emphasis on the energy sector. Hua and team proposed an innovative way to increase deployment of renewables and to defer costly grid infrastructure upgraded through the implementation of Grid Enhancement Technologies (GETs). The winning student will receive $10,000 tuition scholarships from AVANGRID as well as cash prizes.
“Collaboration is a key driver of innovation and this year’s Innovation Forum really emphasized how AVANGRID works with world-class students, researchers and universities, innovative startups and cutting-edge technology partners to serve as the architects of the clean energy future that we all need,” Arriola said.
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About AVANGRID: AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) aspires to be the leading sustainable energy company in the United States. Headquartered in Orange, CT with approximately $39 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 and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. Avangrid Renewables owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy generation facilities across the United States. AVANGRID employs approximately 7,000 people and has been recognized by Forbes and Just Capital as one of the 2021 JUST 100 companies – a list of America’s best corporate citizens – and was ranked number one within the utility sector for its commitment to the environment and the communities it serves. The company supports the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals and was named among the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2021 for the third consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. For more information, visit www.avangrid.com.
About Avangrid: Avangrid, Inc. (NYSE: AGR) aspires to be the leading sustainable energy company in the United States. Headquartered in Orange, CT with approximately $44 billion in assets and operations in 24 U.S. states, Avangrid has two primary lines of business: networks and renewables. Through its networks business, Avangrid owns and operates eight electric and natural gas utilities, serving more than 3.3 million customers in New York and New England. Through its renewables business, Avangrid owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy generation facilities across the United States. Avangrid employs approximately 8,000 people and has been recognized by JUST Capital in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 as one of the JUST 100 companies – a ranking of America’s best corporate citizens. In 2024, Avangrid ranked first among utilities and 12 overall. The company supports the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals and was named among the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2024 for the sixth consecutive year by the Ethisphere Institute. Avangrid is a member of the group of companies controlled by Iberdrola, S.A. For more information, visit www.avangrid.com.
About Iberdrola: Iberdrola is one of the world's biggest energy companies and a leader in renewables, spearheading the energy transition to a low carbon economy. The group supplies energy to almost 100 million people in dozens of countries. With a focus on renewable energy, smart networks and smart solutions for customers, Iberdrola’s main markets include Europe (Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy and Greece), the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Australia. The company is also present in growth markets such as Japan, Taiwan, Ireland, Sweden and Poland, among others.
With a workforce of nearly 40,000 and assets in excess of €141.7 billion, across the world, Iberdrola helps to support 400,000 jobs across its supply chain, with annual procurement of €12.2 billion. A benchmark in the fight against climate change, Iberdrola has invested more than €130 billion over the past two decades to help build a sustainable energy model, based on sound environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles.