Press Releases
06/16/2021
Technology & Innovation
Technology & Innovation
To thrive in changing times, we must adapt and innovate. As a clean energy leader, Avangrid's vision is to build on innovation that can scale new and emerging technologies over time. That’s why we embrace innovation as a core value and are committed to investing in a smarter and cleaner energy future to meet the needs of our customers, improve reliability, reduce environmental impacts and enable climate change goals.
We are facing an unprecedented moment in history as we look to address the risks posed by climate change. At Avangrid, we see this as an opportunity to push for a clean energy transformation that will benefit our customers, our communities, our shareholders and the planet. Innovation is an essential component in the collective effort to transition to a clean, sustainable and equitable energy future.
In 2022, we invested more than $97 million into energy innovation projects (an increase of 7.5% over the previous year). These investments included $50 million in our networks business and $32 million in our renewables business, as well as $15 million in a range of innovative technologies. These investments drive us to improve reliability across our operations, to explore the development of new renewable energy sources like green hydrogen and to increase access to cost-efficient clean-energy technologies for our customers such as heat pumps, EV charging and smart meters. We also shared these innovations with other businesses, colleges and universities, and other organizations to maximize positive impacts.
SHOWCASING THE LATEST DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
At the 2022 Avangrid Digital Summit, we brought together a diverse array of technology leaders to share new innovations that will advance smart grids and improve the customer experience. Here, technology leaders from organizations like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Deloitte, IBM and others shared their newest digital products and services while collaborating on use cases with a focus on areas like smart grids and operations.
Featured technologies included advanced analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics and many others. As the host of this summit, we looked for ways that these innovations can help us create a path to a decarbonized, electrified economy and a cleaner energy future.
THE PATH TO A CLEAN ENERGY GRID
At Avangrid's sixth annual Innovation Forum, we highlighted some of the most innovative ways we are delivering clean energy solutions more reliably. We presented technologies such as our “digital twins” onshore wind gearboxes. These devices predict wear and tear on mechanical components and automatically trigger precautionary maintenance to minimize downtime for renewable power generators.
Beyond these events, throughout the year we built strategic partnerships and research and development collaborations with several top universities, technology providers, public organizations and startups to advance innovation. Some examples of these innovations include:
- Initiatives to advance adoption of EVs through rate case proposals for an EV charging hub, curbside charging, and medium and heavy-duty vehicle make-ready programs across New York.
- Support for the Ithaca Electrification Initiative to inform the potential for 100% decarbonization as part of the city’s Green New Deal resolution, a government-led commitment to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 that focuses on addressing historical inequities, economic inequality and social justice.
- Collaboration with the University of Connecticut on various Department of Energy proposals including Sweet: Solar, Wind and Energy Storage Ingestion – an innovative approach for existing renewable generation to provide essential grid services such as voltage, frequency control and power recovery during system-wide outages.
- Collaboration with the University of Maine to initiate a study and inform advanced grid support functions to improve voltage issues caused by integration of distributed energy research (DER) projects such as solar within the electric grid.
- Collaboration with the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA) to increase access to clean electric transportation options in prioritized communities, which include low-income and transportation-disadvantaged households in the Ithaca and Tompkins County area.
- Cornell’s ARPA-E dynamic capacitive wireless charging project: The primary objective of this project is to develop a 50-kW MHz-scale dynamic capacitive wireless charging system, which is expected to be substantially less expensive than the inductive charging counterpart. Avangrid will use key findings from this project to develop a breakthrough wireless charging system for stationary and dynamic EVs.
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.
