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Year-End Review: 2021 was an Inflection Year for Digitization of the Power Grid

Adoption of Digital Grid Technologies Set to Accelerate in 2022

1) 2021 Review: Capital Boom, Grid Under Pressure, U.S. Storage ITC, New Technologies

2021 began amidst a historic boom for investment into new energy technologies. Emerging hardware technologies in energy storage and EV charging led market education and grabbed the headlines (and most of the capital). The February blackouts in Texas, May cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, and September crisis in Britain all heightened stakeholder recognition of the urgent need for the power grid to integrate new technologies to cope with the Energy Transition.

By the end of the year — armed with large amounts of capital — developers of assets across renewables, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure were armed with fresh and unprecedented confidence. In the United States, this confidence has been further bolstered by the prospect of the federal ITC for energy storage.

The cumulative effect of these events has been to set off a “land grab” to seize an early mover advantage in the Energy Transition — one of the greatest opportunities of the entire global economy over the coming decade.

However, despite the large influx of capital and confidence, the cold reality is that the underlying economics of the Energy Transition leave little margin for error. The economic proposition for energy storage and EV charging varies dramatically based on node location, the technology employed, policy/regulatory variance, and other complex factors.

In order to assist clients in moving quickly and confidently with such investment decisions, Acelerex successfully launched its Grid Analytics, Grid Data Services, and Grid Automation platforms in 2021.

Our clients doubled in number during the course of 2021, with the outlook for 2022 looking extremely bright. To assist us with ensuring success in 2022, we also have been fortunate enough to bring on Terry Boston, the highly regarded former CEO of PJM Interconnection, as a shareholder and strategic partner.

Terry Boston, former CEO of PJM Interconnection, joins Acelerex as Shareholder and Strategic Partner – Acelerex

2) 2022 Outlook: Digital Adoption to Intensify, Conventional Technologies to Thrive, Public Sector Tailwinds

Heading into 2022, the market is hugely optimistic about increasing project closes across renewables, energy storage, and EV charging infrastructure. While new technologies such as long-duration storage and EV charging dominate the headlines, conventional technologies such as lithium-ion, solar, and wind turbines continue to see the potential for large sales. Acelerex has a bird’s eye view of these trendlines as we are assisting with the nodal market analysis for these assets.

Adoption of our Analytics platform has already gained significant traction in 2021; in 2022, we anticipate a similar intensification in the adoption of our Grid Automation platform. The battery procurement cycle — a lagging effect of many of the 2021 market dynamics — has begun to heat up towards the end of this year. Procurement for EMS and scheduling will immediately follow battery procurement, which in turn will drive the adoption of Grid Automation software.

In parallel, Acelerex expects project closes and battery procurement to continue to be assisted by favorable policy and regulatory tailwinds. Policy and regulatory movements will continue to catalyze the Energy Transition in North America and Western Europe. In turn, this will further accelerate both penetration of renewables and adoption of energy storage. As that happens, broad recognition of the stress placed upon the grid and the necessity of ensuring grid resilience and reliability through the Energy Transition will only continue to grow through the course of 2022.

The Acelerex team wishes all of you and your families the heartiest of greetings for the Holiday Season and a great start to 2022. If we can be of assistance to any of you in your plans for 2022, please do not hesitate to reach out to us to arrange a discussion. Please email [email protected].

The Power Grid For The 21st Century