Houston-based Innowatts, a specialist in AMI-enabled predictive energy analytics and artificial intelligence, is expanding its partnership with Colombian utility Celsia to deliver more accurate forecasting and analytic tools aimed at lowering costs to more than 5000 current and prospective commercial and industrial users.
 
The move strengthens Innowatts’ foothold in the Latin American market, which is seen as a critical future growth area for smart grid and AMI-enabled energy systems.
 
Part of the Grupo Argos conglomerate, Celsia operates 28 hydroelectric, thermal, photovoltaic and wind power plants with a combined capacity of 1.8GW, and delivers 6500GWh per year to over a million customers in Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras.
 
By enabling more accurate energy forecasting and real-time load analysis, Innowatts’ tools should help Celsia boost both total revenues and gross margin per unit generated, while also delivering more reliable, lower-cost energy to its clients. The company will also use Innowatts’ analytics to support sales activities for its clients, helping grow its footprint and increase its long-term business performance.
 
The deployment is seen as cementing a long-term relationship between Celsia and Innowatts, with smart-meter analytics helping fuel Celsia’s strategies around customer acquisition and engagement. Innowatts’ smart alerts tools will also generate real-time load forecasts, allowing Celsia to engage more actively with its customers ahead of periods of anticipated high usage, limited bandwidth or extreme weather conditions.
 
“Innowatts’ tools are giving us a deeper understanding of our customers’ real-world energy needs,” said Juan Alzate, Celsia’s chief innovation officer. “That lets us serve our customers better, and helps us make smarter decisions around customer engagement and strategic growth.”
 
Innowatts’ analytics tools use machine-learning systems trained using weather and energy data from 23 million smart meters around the world, offering insights into real-world energy use across a wide range of conditions. Such tools have proven their value in the USA, and Latin America is seen as a new frontier for smart grid technologies, with the region’s energy firms expected to invest more than $20bn on building out smart grid and smart meter infrastructure by 2027.
 
Colombia has announced plans to achieve 90% smart-meter penetration by 2030 in urban areas, while Costa Rica is aiming for 100% migration to smart meters by 2025. Elsewhere in the region, Mexico is targeting 79% penetration by 2025, while Brazil plans to install 63 million smart meters by 2021.
 
“Latin America is on the brink of a true smart-grid revolution, and that represents a huge opportunity for Innowatts, and a huge opportunity for clean-energy pioneers like Celsia to reap the benefits of smarter, more accurate analytics,” said Sid Sachdeva, Innowatts CEO. “Innowatts’ cutting-edge analytics platform has truly global potential, and will make sustainable energy more affordable and dependable for consumers all around the world.”
 
Celsia and its parent company, Grupo Argos, have partnered with venture-capital firm Veronorte to invest in transformative energy, intelligent infrastructure and construction-tech start-ups. Following a $20m series B fundraising round earlier this year, in which Veronorte and its partners participated, Innowatts is also expanding into Latin American markets.
 
Innowatts is a provider of AMI-enabled predictive analytics and AI-based services for utilities, energy retailers and smart energy communities. To date, its eUtility technology platform has provided nearly 23 million energy consumers and their energy providers with access to lower energy costs and more reliable and personalised energy experience.
 
Innowatts is backed by Energy Impact Partners, Shell Ventures, Iberdrola (Spain), EEI (Japan), Evergy Ventures and Veronorte (Colombia).