Bidgely and Avista Utilities Win 2024 PLMA Technology Pioneer Award

LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2024--

Bidgely and Avista Utilities have been awarded the 2024 Technology Pioneer Award by Peak Load Management Alliance (PLMA) for the integration of Bidgely’s UtilityAI™ Platform into Avista’s grid management and customer experience strategies. PLMA's annual awards recognize notable innovations in flexible load management and highlight the dedicated teams driving progress towards greater grid stability and reliability.

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“We congratulate Bidgely and Avista Utilities, winners of PLMA’s 2024 Technology Pioneer Award, for their collaborative work that leverages AI technology to analyze customer consumption and provide energy insights that validate utility expectations for customers with EVs,” said Kevin Knight, PLMA Awards Program Co-Chair. “This commendable project showcases how AI technology can be a tool used to enhance grid planning, load management, and customer engagement. We look forward to learning more about their results and lessons learned when they present these in a webinar to PLMA stakeholders later this year.”

Avista’s application of Bidgely’s AI-powered data analytics was specifically recognized for transforming multiple dimensions of consumer usage data (via smart meters) into sophisticated energy insights that optimized Avista’s existing grid infrastructure and load forecasting. PLMA also acknowledged the partnership’s demonstrated potential to scale, specifically Bidgely’s light technology footprint and non-invasive monitoring approach.

“Energy consumption is evolving. The more we understand these changes the better we can serve our customers, manage grid loads and improve operational efficiencies,” said Latisha Hill, vice president community affairs and Chief Customer Officer at Avista. “We are honored by PLMA’s recognition for our use of Bidgely’s AI-powered energy insights as a catalyst for innovation organization-wide.”

Notably, Bidgely’s appliance-level energy insights led to data-driven discoveries cross-departmentally at Avista. As a result, the utility was able to reduce the time required to resolve customer calls, reduce high bill investigation truck rolls, improve customer engagement satisfaction ratings, enhance electric vehicle (EV) and distributed energy resources grid planning, as well as save hundreds of hours in employee workloads.

“Today’s energy landscape requires utilities to be innately in tune with how new consumption behavior and increased electrification affect the grid,” said Abhay Gupta, CEO of Bidgely. “Utilities are also embracing a culture of knowledge sharing, and Avista proved how a uniform data set can serve as a single source of truth to bolster success across multiple departments.”

To learn about Avista’s data-driven approach to grid management and customer engagement with Bidgely, read the case study: Leveraging Behind the Meter Intelligence for Customer and Grid Operations.

About Bidgely

Bidgely is an AI-powered SaaS Company accelerating a clean energy future by enabling energy companies and consumers to make data-driven energy-related decisions. Powered by our unique patented technology, Bidgely's UtilityAI™ Platform transforms multiple dimensions of customer data - such as energy consumption, demographics, and interactions - into deeply accurate and actionable consumer energy insights. We leverage these insights to empower each customer with personalized recommendations, tailored to their individual personality and lifestyle, usage attributes, behavioral patterns, purchase propensity, and beyond. From a Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and Grid Edge perspective, Bidgely is advancing smart meter innovation with data-driven solutions for solar PVs, EV detection, EV behavioral load shifting and managed charging, energy theft, short-term load forecasting, grid analytics, and TOU rate designs. Bidgely’s UtilityAI™ energy analytics provides deep visibility into generation and consumption for better peak load shaping and grid planning, and delivers targeted recommendations for new value-added products and services. With roots in Silicon Valley, Bidgely has over 16 energy patents, $75M+ in funding, retains 30+ data scientists, and brings a passion for AI to utilities serving residential and commercial customers around the world. For more information, please visit www.bidgely.com or the Bidgely blog at bidgely.com/blog.

PLMA's annual awards recognize notable innovations in flexible load management and highlight the dedicated teams driving progress towards greater grid stability and reliability. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Using armored vehicles and backhoes to shove aside charred barricades, French security forces worked Sunday to retake control of the highway to the international airport in violence-scorched New Caledonia, shuttered because of deadly unrest wracking the French Pacific archipelago where indigenous people have long sought independence from France.

An eventual reopening of the Nouméa-La Tontouta airport to commercial flights could allow stranded tourists to escape the island where armed clashes, arson, looting and other mayhem have prompted France to impose a state of emergency. The airport, with routes to Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and other destinations, closed Tuesday as protests against voting reforms opposed by pro-independence supporters degenerated into widespread violence, leaving a vast trail of destruction.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, posting on social media platform X, said the “major operation” was “aimed at fully regaining control” of the RT1 highway between the capital, Nouméa, and the airport 60 kilometers (nearly 40 miles) to the northwest. He said more than 600 gendarmes were deployed. The number spoke to the difficulty of clearing roads of charred debris and barricades erected by pro-independence demonstrators and residents who have banded together to try to protect homes and livelihoods against rioters and looters.

The police effort to reopen the airport road cleared nearly 60 barricades on its first day, French authorities in New Caledonia' posted on X.

The French High Commission, in a statement, described the night of Saturday to Sunday as “calmer" but still spoke of two blazes and the looting of a gas station, without giving details. A 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew is in effect and security forces have been granted emergency powers, including house detention for people deemed a threat to public order and expanded leeway to conduct searches, seize weapons and restrict movements, with possible jail time for violators.

The High Commission also said 230 people it described as rioters have been detained.

Nouméa’s mayor, Sonia Lagarde, told French broadcaster BFMTV on Sunday that fully clearing the airport road could take “days and days” because of "an enormous amount of burned carcasses of cars.”

“The situation is still dramatic,” she said.

Gen. Nicolas Matthéos, head of the archipelago’s public order force of gendarmes, said some barricades had been booby-trapped with gas canisters and reinforced with “walls of vehicles."

The foreign ministers of Australia and New Zealand said they are seeking French green lights to fly out their nationals.

“French authorities advise the situation on the ground is preventing flights. We continue to pursue approvals,” the Australian minister, Penny Wong, posted on X.

On Saturday, French authorities reported a sixth fatality in the violence, following an exchange of gunfire at a barricade in the north of the main island, at Kaala-Gomen.

There have been decades of tensions between indigenous Kanaks seeking independence and descendants of colonizers who want to remain part of France.

The unrest erupted Monday as the French legislature in Paris debated amending the French constitution to make changes to New Caledonia voter lists. The National Assembly in Paris approved a bill that will, among other changes, allow residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to cast ballots in provincial elections.

Opponents fear the measure will benefit pro-France politicians in New Caledonia and further marginalize Kanaks who once suffered from strict segregation policies and widespread discrimination.

FILE - Smoke rises during protests in Noumea, New Caledonia, Wednesday May 15, 2024. Using backhoes to shove aside charred vehicles, French security forces worked Sunday, May 19, 2024, to retake control of the highway to the international airport in violence-scorched New Caledonia, shuttered because of deadly unrest wracking the French South Pacific island where indigenous people have long sought independence from France. (AP Photo/Nicolas Job, File)

FILE - This handout photo provided by the French Army shows security force embarking a plane to New Caledonia at the Istres military base, southern France, on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Using backhoes to shove aside charred vehicles, French security forces worked Sunday, May 19, 2024, to retake control of the highway to the international airport in violence-scorched New Caledonia, shuttered because of deadly unrest wracking the French South Pacific island where indigenous people have long sought independence from France. (Etat Major des Armees via AP, File)