ST. LOUIS — Ameren Corp. has partnered with the Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI) Incubatenergy Labs startup challenge for a “new phase” of its accelerator program, to culminate in an event in St. Louis this fall.
The Ameren Accelerator will team up with Silicon Valley-based EPRI and 12 other utility firms to work with startups through the Incubatenergy Labs program, St. Louis-based Ameren said Thursday. The incubator program has selected 10 startups for its 2020 cohort. The chosen startups will work on paid “demonstration projects” with the participating utility companies. As part of its collaboration with EPRI, Ameren will host four projects through its Ameren Accelerator.
"Ameren Accelerator 2020 evolves our successful energy innovation model to incorporate more energy technology demonstrations," said Warner Baxter, chairman, president and CEO of Ameren. "We have confidence that our engagement with these promising startup companies will help us deliver the kinds of clean, reliable and affordable energy solutions our customers are looking for.”
The four startups that will work directly with Ameren on their projects include:
- ev.energy (Palo Alto, California): This startup has created a wireless platform designed to improve electric vehicle charging.
- IND Technology Inc. (New York): The startup’s technology is built to remotely detect and preemptively locate electrical issues.
- PingThings (El Segundo, California): This AI startup’s technology is designed to analyze, store, and use high-definition sensor data from the electric power system.
- Recurve (Mill Valley, California): This software startup has developed a product that looks at how to use energy effectively.
Companies will begin their projects June 1 and present them in October at the Incubatenergy Labs Challenge Demonstration Day, which Ameren will host in St. Louis.
Ameren’s involvement with the EPRI’s startup program marks a new path for the St. Louis firm’s energy-focused startup accelerator. It launched the Ameren Accelerator in 2017 through a partnership with the University of Missouri System, UMSL Accelerate and St. Louis-based accelerator Capital Innovators. From 2017 to 2019, startups in the program’s annual cohorts received $100,000 in seed funding and participated in a 12-week accelerator hosted in the Cortex innovation district. One of the accelerator’s portfolio firms, Switched Source, was selected for this year’s Incubatenergy Labs program.
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