This story was originally published on the Technology Licensing Office website.
As more electric vehicles hit the road each year, increased strain is being put on our aging power infrastructure.
To ensure continued power reliability, new solutions are needed to keep up with growing energy demands. Grid Elevated, a U of U startup that brings together faculty, students, and alumni, has launched their IntelliCharge platform that uses AI to better balance EV charging and turns it into a solution to provide additional energy flexibility to the grid.
A Strain on the Power Grid
According to data from Princeton, electricity consumption by passenger cars and small vehicles could surge by as much as 3,360% by 2035 compared to recent levels. While most cars sit idle for much of the day, vehicle charging can still bunch up during peak hours, which can add stress to power grids.
Part of the challenge is, “With limited information provided by EV charging solutions to the grid and lack of coordination between the players, EV charging can suddenly become a challenge hard to predict for the facility and grid operators,” explained Dr. Masood Parvania, director of the Utah Smart Energy Lab and Grid Elevated co-founder. He continued, “This challenge, however, can be turned into an opportunity to provide spatio-temporal flexibility to the grid and solve grid reliability and resilience challenges, especially during extreme weather events.”
Innovation Born Out of the U of U
Researchers here at the University of Utah set out to solve this problem by reimagining how EV charging data could be captured and utilized for the benefit of the grid. That research eventually led to the creation of IntelliCharge: a fully customizable, AI-powered, cloud-based system that connects EV charging stations, grid and facility operators, and EV drivers.
The technology intelligently throttles charging across different vehicles and times, optimizing when cars charge based on grid demand and renewable energy availability. IntelliCharge operates on Grid Elevated’s MIDAAS (Multi-source Data Acquisition, Analytics, and Security) platform, which digitizes grid data to enable AI-powered optimization across the entire power system.
Grid Elevated is formed by University of Utah faculty members Masood Parvania and Jairo Giraldo, along with Ph.D. candidate Alex Farley. In 2024, the team gained a powerful addition when Hanko Kiessner, a 1992 U of U MBA graduate who built PackSize into a billion-dollar company, joined as strategic advisor and investor. Together, they aim to revolutionize how data is collected, managed, and utilized by facility and grid operators, and work to enable the practical and scalable use of AI applications, increasing the efficiency and reliability of grid operations.
“The University of Utah fosters a collaborative environment that fuels our ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Bruce Hunter, Chief Innovation Officer at the University’s Technology Licensing Office. “Grid Elevated is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation at the U.”
Parvania also noted that intra-university collaborations like these create “a whole new line of career for our students to be involved in these innovative companies that are coming out of the U.”
A New Business Model for EV Charging Infrastructure
With their unique team, Grid Elevated has been able to translate research findings from Utah Smart Energy Lab into a business model that improves the sustainability, efficiency, and accessibility of EV charging stations. They’ve found a niche that has allowed them to provide a business model that didn’t previously exist.
University alum Hanko Kiessner emphasized the significance of Grid Elevated’s business model: “There isn’t really a sustainable, scalable, and successful charging business model out there today. And this is where I think Grid Elevated has really taken a different approach, by listening to each of the target market’s feature requests.”
Grid Elevated’s unique team and fully customizable system allows them to work with their target audience, catering to each of their clients’ specific needs all while connecting grid operators to those systems. The versatility and customizability of IntelliCharge allows them to collaborate with a variety of different companies.
The other significant aspect of IntelliCharge’s launch revolves around the reliability of EV charging and how the grid is influenced by an influx of charging stations. Not only does IntelliCharge allow grid operators to analyze data and track energy consumption, but the system makes EV charging accessible to far more businesses and drivers than ever before.
The team at Grid Elevated believes that EV charging should be affordable and abundant, and the more companies and businesses utilize IntelliCharge, the more convenient and efficient EV charging will be for everyone, EV drivers and power grid operators alike.
Recognition and Upcoming Projects
Grid Elevated has been recognized nationally by the U.S. Department of Energy as the winner of both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Digitizing Utilities Prize for their MIDAAS platform that enables application of advanced AI technologies for efficient and reliable grid operation. The company’s achievements have also been recognized locally, earning them a 2024 Utah Business Innovation recognition.
The Technology Licensing Office (TLO) also aided in the commercialization process of IntelliCharge. The Grid Elevated team emphasized how straightforward, direct, and efficient working with the TLO has been through the commercialization process.
Within the next few months, Grid Elevated will announce exciting new partnerships as they focus on commercializing their technology. Kiessner shared that the company has “no small goals,” and that they’re rapidly expanding their technology and their client base.
Learn more about Grid Elevated.