AI-Enabled Power Marketer Launching Retail Supplier, Initially In Texas -- EnergyChoiceMatters.com

AI-Enabled Power Marketer Launching Retail Supplier, Initially In Texas

Names Texas Market Vets To Lead Retail Effort

January 23, 2023

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Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com

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Gridmatic, an AI-enabled power marketer, announced today the launch of Gridmatic Retail, "to optimize clean energy purchasing and provide predictability and automation for commercial and industrial customers."

Gridmatic had previously launched various wholesale power solutions, using artificial intelligence models to forecast energy supply, demand, and pricing for large energy consumers as well as generators and other wholesale market participants.

Gridmatic's expansion into retail supply had been exclusively first reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com in January 2022.

Gridmatic Retail's initial market will be Texas, where Gridmatic Retail has an Option 2 retail electric provider certificate, which authorizes the company to serve customers 1 MW and larger which provide an affidavit agreeing to such service.

David Miller, Vice President of Business Development for Gridmatic, told EnergyChoiceMatters.com that Gridmatic Retail's offering is initially aimed at customers demanding 24-7 renewable matching and those for which electricity cost is such a critical input, that the customer's economics are dependent on the optimization of the customer's load profile on a sub-hourly basis, to ensure that the customer is consuming at the right time -- customers such as hydrogen production facilities, data centers, and EV charging networks.

Time-matching renewables, as well as pricing optimization, is dependent on storage, or the customer having demand flexibility. That's where Gridmatic Retail's AI is utilized to time match renewables in a cost-effective way, the company said -- from making an initial decision on an appropriate renewable project that best fits the customer's profile, to making dispatch decisions to balance renewables procurement with storage injections or withdrawals, or optimizing consumption along with storage injections and withdrawals based on market prices.

Miller said that, "it's definitely in our plans," to serve slightly smaller C&I customers seeking the same time-matched renewables in the future.

Discussing Gridmatic's decision to enter the retail market, Miller said, "We see it as a big need. There are a number of large companies with advanced power procurement organizations that have gone out and have signed PPAs at the wholesale level with renewable generators, but not everybody is going to be able to do that. Not every consumer of electricity can go out and sign a virtual PPA. Those are complex contracts, they involve risk, and sometimes they don't work out that well. So what we're seeing is, there is demand for customers to get these renewable products, but at the retail level where a lot of their risks are mitigated, and it's much easier for them to be served."

Miller said that Gridmatic chose Texas as its initial retail market, in part, due to the significant growth in Texas in the type of customers Gridmatic is targeting. Miller said that Gridmatic does expect to expand its retail business to other markets with retail choice, but the company hasn't finalized plans on when such an effort may launch.

Gridmatic has named industry veterans Michael Osowski (President, Gridmatic Retail) and Amy Van Gelder (VP of Operations, Gridmatic Retail) to head up the new retail business unit.

Among other positions, Osowski previously served as CEO of Oasis Energy and CEO of Trident Power, as well as Senior Vice President at Spark Energy.

Van Gelder previously served as COO at Oasis Energy, Trident Power, and CleanSky Energy, among other senior retail energy positions.

With Gridmatic Retail, "the company offers advanced solutions for businesses with complex energy needs to hit carbon reduction goals, including time matched, variable load and carbon-free energy products," Gridmatic said.

"Leveraging its market-proven AI, Gridmatic Retail enables businesses to meet carbon reduction targets with clean energy contracts that drive down costs and provide predictability and stability. The company offers next-generation retail energy products including Time-Matched Renewables, which matches clean energy to consumer consumption on a 24/7 hourly basis, and custom products for customers with variable and complex needs," Gridmatic said.

Matt Wytock, CEO and Founder of Gridmatic, said, "Gridmatic is applying Silicon Valley AI to solve this problem and has four years of market success with its algorithms for industry-leading electricity market predictions."

As part of the launch, Gridmatic announced a customer agreement with EdgeConneX, a provider of Hyperlocal to Hyperscale Data Center Solutions. Gridmatic will provide time-matched carbon-free energy for an EdgeConneX data center in Texas, within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory. For EdgeConneX, Gridmatic will assemble a portfolio of contracted CFE [carbon free] generation and storage assets to provide carbon-free energy that is time-matched on an hourly basis.

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