As the energy industry accelerates innovation to meet growing demand, innovators and entrepreneurs are stepping up to the plate to help bridge the gap between technologies utilities need now and the time it takes to bring them to market.
EPRI’s Incubatenergy Labs® (IEL) is at the center, connecting innovators with utilities to validate and de-risk early-stage technologies through paid demonstrations. IEL handles the heavy lifting from finding and reviewing solutions to demonstration project scoping, contracting, and coordination. The collaborative approach reduces friction, speeds up deployment, and enables dozens of utilities to share lessons learned. IEL helps turn early utility interest into real-world validation, and real-world validation into broader utility adoption.
IEL has created a repeatable model that helps utilities move from startup discovery to completed demonstrations in a matter of months, not years. Nearly 100 solutions have been tested, with most demos completed within 16 weeks. That gives innovators a real environment to prove their technology while providing utilities with a quick, low-risk approach to testing new solutions.
Speed matters. Early-stage technologies often fail because the path to commercialization is too long, too uncertain, or too difficult to navigate. IEL gives utilities a structured way to test new technologies while giving innovators the validation they need to refine their product, build credibility, and unlock new opportunities.
Startup Success Stories: IEL Innovation in Action
For startups, those quick demonstrations can be a turning point. IEL Alumni consistently describe a single utility demonstration as the catalyst that helped validate their technology, secure additional utility customers, generate new revenue, attract investment, and establish credibility in a market where landing a first utility customer can be one of the hardest steps.
IEL Alumni have reported signing new utility customers, expanding into enterprise deployments, increasing revenue, raising investment capital, and developing products now used across North America and internationally. One company secured 10 new utility customers and raised $6.5 million following its participation, while another credited IEL with helping land its very first paid utility pilot—solving the classic "first customer" challenge that many startups face. Others describe the validation from an IEL project as the proof point that enabled entirely new business opportunities.
A new EPRI series is highlighting IEL demonstrations and the innovators behind them, showcasing how early demonstrations can evolve into lasting partnerships, commercial deployments, and real-world impact across the industry. Be sure to follow along on EPRI’s LinkedIn page to learn more about some of the groundbreaking success stories.
SHARC Energy Systems
SHARC Energy Systems develops wastewater energy recovery solutions, turning an often-overlooked resource – thermal energy from sewer and wastewater systems – into a reliable, low-carbon source of heating, cooling, and hot water.
SHARC Founder Lynn Mueller credits IEL with helping the company advance projects amid the uncertainty of 2020, connecting SHARC with utility partners like Con Edison. This project helped them establish meaningful, long-standing connections that continue to shape SHARC’s ongoing and future projects.
Ev.energy builds smart EV charging software that optimizes charging times to benefit both the grid and consumers. Their platform intelligently manages charging to reduce peak demand, lower energy costs, and increase the use of renewable energy.
In a 2020 IEL project, Ameren Missouri used the platform to manage EV charging on a 12 kV feeder, avoiding 40 thermal constraint events over a single summer. The success of the pilot helped expand charging efforts by leveraging advanced metering infrastructure (AMI 2.0) to scale managed charging programs, demonstrating the technology's real-world value in utility environments and supporting cost management.
Rhizome
Rhizome applies AI-powered climate resilience software to help utilities identify infrastructure vulnerabilities, assess climate-related risks, and prioritize grid investments. By leveraging both climate science and utility data, this technology enables smarter, data-driven planning that can help protect communities from extreme weather events.
In 2024, Rhizome partnered with Portland General Electric (PGE) through IEL to model climate impacts across PGE’s distribution system. Rhizone CEO Mishal Thadani emphasized the value in working with a utility design partner to stress-test the platform using real operational data. The collaboration helped refine and align the technology with utility needs and has since led to utility partnerships for Rhizome across the U.S. and internationally, including Canada, the UK, and New Zealand.
Buzz Solutions
Buzz Solutions uses AI to identify defects across grid infrastructure, analyzing inspection images from drone and helicopter footage and turning that footage into faster, more reliable maintenance decisions across transmission, distribution, substation, and solar assets. The company participated in IEL twice, first with Newfoundland Power and later with the New York Power Authority (NYPA), using both rounds to validate its technology against new use cases. These demonstrations accelerated the adoption of the technology by major utilities, including Ameren, NYPA, Dominion Energy, AEP, and Southern Company.
A Model Where Innovators and Utilities Both Win
IEL works because it reduces friction on both sides. For startups, IEL offers a first utility customer, a paid project in a real operating environment, and the credibility that comes from proving and building a solution alongside trusted utility partners. For utilities, IEL provides a quick pathway to evaluate emerging technologies without taking on the full cost, complexity, or risk of traditional procurement.
At scale, IEL is doing more than connecting startups and utilities; it's accelerating the deployment of the technologies needed for a more reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy future. By helping both sides move from interest to action, IEL offers a practical pathway to turn innovation into real-world impact.