AutoGrid Systems Appoints Industry Luminaries to the Strategic Advisory Board

REDWOOD SHORES, CA--(Marketwired - May 20, 2014) - AutoGrid Systems, a leader in Big Data analytics and cloud computing solutions for the energy industry, announced today that Jon Wellinghoff, former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Tom Kippola, co-founder of the Chasm Group, have joined the company's strategic advisory board.

FERC Commissioner for seven years, and Partner at law firm Stoel Rives, Wellinghoff is one of the world's most prominent experts on clean technologies and has championed deploying smart grid technologies such as AutoGrid's Energy Data Platform (EDP) to enhance and improve the global electrical system. During his tenure, Wellinghoff made the integration of demand response, which he calls the "killer app" of the smart grid, and other technologies, a regulatory priority. FERC estimates that demand response potentially could replace up to 188GW of demand in the U.S., or 20% of peak capacity, enabling utilities and the communities they serve to avoid billions in power plant investments.

"We are on the verge of a major technological transformation of the energy industry that will have a long-term, positive impact on lowering costs, emissions and fuel consumption," said Wellinghoff. "I look forward to working with the team at AutoGrid to help bring their breakthrough data analytics and demand response applications to a wider number of utilities and end-users."

As a Managing Director at the Chasm Group, Kippola specializes in creating breakaway strategies and business models for rapidly growing technology companies. Over the past 20 years, he has advised, among others, the largest vendor of electronic document and delivery software and helped guide a software company to one of ten largest software exits (over $5 billion). He also serves as a Venture Partner at Voyager Capital.

"AutoGrid leverages an untapped asset -- the petabytes of data being generated by smart meters and other devices linked to the grid -- to control power consumption and distribution," said Kippola. "The company's software-based approach dramatically expands the market for demand response and dynamic pricing programs by dramatically lowering cost and barriers to entry."

On a fast-paced, high growth trajectory since its launch, AutoGrid creates cloud-based platforms and applications that let utilities, grid operators and others more fully utilize the physical assets that make up the grid as well as the power generated by traditional or renewable power plants.

The company's first application, Demand Response Optimization and Management System (DROMS), can reduce the cost of implementing demand response systems by up to 90% and increase the power yield by up to 30%. In 2013, AutoGrid opened up EDP to third party application developers to help accelerate the delivery of groundbreaking new products for the energy industry.

Several utilities such as Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Austin Energy, E.ON, and City of Palo Alto Utilities have announced the use of AutoGrid's Big Data Analytics technology to improve the reliability and productivity of their operations. AutoGrid has also partnered with several world-leading organizations such as NTT DATA, Schneider Electric, and Silver Spring Networks to expand its market reach around the world.

"Jon and Tom are two giants in their fields and we are thrilled to have them as part of our advisory team," said Dr. Amit Narayan, CEO and founder of AutoGrid. "Their expertise and experience will be tremendous assets as we move toward our goal of establishing Big Data as the cleanest, cheapest source of power."

About AutoGrid Systems
AutoGrid is dedicated to bringing the power of Big Data, predictive analytics and Internet scale computational techniques to the production and consumption of electricity. Serving utilities of all sizes, grid operators, electricity retailers, ESCO services companies, and end-users, AutoGrid develops and markets services that both help lower costs and improve reliability of the electricity supply chain. For more information, visit www.auto-grid.com.