Incubatenergy Labs Challenge for Startups

An energy providers summit and collaborative demonstrations program in one, the program links startup companies leading the advancement of electrification, decarbonization and grid modernization with energy providers from around the world that have the capacity and desire to demonstrate and scale those innovations. They structured the program to give you maximum exposure to energy providers and ensure that the results of a successful demonstration with one energy provider turns into opportunities with many.

Challenge Categories

Incubatenergy Labs seeks technologies for 2024’s cohort in the following innovation challenge categories:

• Customer and community engagement
  • Customers and their satisfaction lie at the core of any business.
• Decarbonization and Sustainability
  • The world is on a path to decarbonize and the electric power industry is leading the charge.
• Electric mobility
  • Electrification is a key component of the decarbonization strategy, and transportation represents the biggest emitter.
• Electrification
  • Building systems and commercial/industrial processes represent significant opportunities for decarbonization.
• Nuclear assists
  • Nuclear power will play a critical role in the decarbonization of the electric generation sector.
• Predictive & Perspective operations
  • With the growth in renewables, distributed energy systems and electrification, modeling, and managing the grid is more important than ever.
• Resilience and adaptation
  • Extreme weather, flooding, and other related events are becoming common.
• Robotics
  • Technological advances have led to rapid growth of opportunities in the robotics industry.
• Waste-derived renewable fuels
  • Waste minimization and valorization play a critical role in a sustainable, net-zero economy, but full realization requires significant scale.
• Workforce of the future
  • Technology can help the workers perform their jobs more safely, efficiently, and effectively.

Why incubatenergy labs?

• Utility Exposure: Present and showcase to utilities and R&D experts from across the U.S.
• Paid Demonstrations: Compete for paid demonstrations with leading utilities in North & South America and Europe.
• Rapid Execution: Scope demonstrations in 6 weeks, execute in 16.
• Demostrate with one, get traction with many: While companies generally engage a single utility in a demonstration, all participating utilities are involved in the demonstration scope, progress, and results.
• Successful candidates will access data, gather insights, scope demonstration trials, and test their products/services in live customer environments.

What they offer?

• Direct engagement with major utility business leaders and subject matter experts
• Demonstration of your tech on-site with some of the largest energy providers in North & South America and Europe
• The opportunity to grow your catalog of contacts through EPRI’s Incubatenergy Network
• Engage utility and industry investment groups
• Time to develop a relevant use case with senior stakeholders prior to Pitch Day
• Accelerated, paid demonstrations on-site between startups and utilities

Criteria

• In general, they’re seeking demonstration-ready solutions, typically at TRL 6-8.
• They are seeking companies whose innovations have progressed beyond the cash prizes phase of development and are ready for real-world demonstration, nearing the point of market scale. While they don’t offer cash prizes, EPRI, and the member energy providers are eager to collaborate with you on paid demonstrations. After all, revenue is the best reward.
• Great innovations come from all corners of the world.

For more information, visit Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).