Dalia Patino-Echeverri is a professor and researcher at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment who has been working on optimizing energy systems for most of her career dating back to the early 2000s. For about the last decade, she and her team have been developing technology that is risk aware and can characterize uncertainty. The tech enables private and industrial entities to make the best decisions for optimization in both the short and long term.
Multiple products have emerged from these efforts. One is Forecast+, which uses AI and probabilistic modeling to deliver accurate, scenario-based forecasts for demand, weather, and renewable generation; another is SmartCommit+ which is an optimization tool designed to improve energy scheduling efficiency and work under high-stakes energy scenarios.
Those products are parts of GridSeer, which is a forecasting system unlike the large majority of systems used today, which mostly use single-point predictions. GridSeer differentiates itself by creating a large range of possible future scenarios based on a greater range of data.
The approach takes into account historical trends, real-time information, and weather forecasts—as well as energy asset data and industry-specific inputs relevant to specific clients. This type of forecasting enables the client to decide what their goals are and use the models to optimize for the future accordingly.
Last November, Patino-Echeverri officially co-founded GridSeer as its own startup.
Developing the Business
About a year ago as of this writing, Patino-Echeverri approached Jesko von Windheim—Professor of the Practice in Entrepreneurship at Duke University—for his opinion as to whether the Gridseer technology was viable to base a business on.
Von Windheim quickly sought feedback from colleagues at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), who indicated that the tech was vital. ARPA-E was willing to provide funding for “tech market activity,” and that is when the effort to launch GridSeer as a startup began.
The GridSeer team is currently working to validate its product and raise capital. Von Windheim explained that Duke University’s energy grid, including all of its energy assets, is being used as a proof of concept—and the models are working. In practically real time, GridSeer has been able to update the Duke system on what could happen tomorrow, providing energy decision makers with a constant stream of probabilistic models to help them make the most informed decisions.
In the past, Patino-Echeverri’s team has also worked with Duke Energy to model the entire asset system and detail future decision pathways that could result in a 2-5% decrease in operating costs.
Looking towards the future
As it develops a business model, GridSeer aims to engage in a “sharing of savings” system with commercial or industrial energy users or managers.
The first step with new customers will be doing a consultation. By using the client’s available data, the team will determine whether or not it can save that client money. If so, GridSeer will charge up front to deploy its technology. But the heart of the model is the sharing savings system. As GridSeer’s technology helps a client make decisions that save money, GridSeer aims to profit by sharing the value of the savings with the client.
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Startup: GridSeer
Co-Founders: Dalia Patino-Echeverri, Jesko von Windheim
Founded: 2024
Team size: 7
Location: Durham
Website: www.gridseer.com
Funding: Raising pre-seed
GridSeer will be hands-on with clients, taking an active role in the decision-making processes. For example, GridSeer could help a client understand the savings implications of implementing an energy storage system or switching from one energy source to another.
“Our main focus is going to be on the control side, what we call the unit commitment side, [where we] actually control the assets and thereby save [the client] money”, von Windheim said.
At the end of the day, GridSeer is chasing efficiency. The founders believe that the only technology that does not have externalities is the “negawatt,” or the energy that one does not consume. Efficiency enables a client to continue doing things the same way, achieving the same comfort and reliability, but improving the way they use resources—which is positive for the client and the world.
