Teaming for a Highly Distributed and Renewable Grid of the Future

JERRY HERDEN: Hello everyone and welcome to Digital Journeys. I'm Jerry Herden, and I will be the moderator for today's discussion with PXiSE Energy Solutions. PXiSE is a company that enables utilities, campuses, and communities to meet their clean energy goals.

JERRY HERDEN: Cherry Bekaert has been working with PXiSE by offering solutions and services for utilities, energy service providers, and organizations deploying PXiSE technologies. Joining us today are Tim Allen, PXiSE President and CEO; Nate Regimbal, Managing Director for Cherry Bekaert and a PXiSE Energy Solutions leader; and Jon Schrader, Director of Cherry Bekaert's Digital Advisory Practice. Thanks for being here today.

TIM ALLEN: Thanks, Jerry. I'm excited to be here and look forward to the conversation.

NATE REGIMBAL: Glad to be here as well.

JERRY HERDEN: Tim, tell me about your history and what your company does.

TIM ALLEN: PXiSE was formed in 2016 to focus on using real-time data combined with AI and machine learning to autonomously control distributed energy resources, including wind, solar, and batteries. We developed our first commercial microgrid controller and power plant controller in 2018, and our first distributed energy resource management system in 2020.

TIM ALLEN: In 2021 we were fully acquired by Yokogawa Company. Today we have over 1.5 gigawatts of contracted assets under control with our software. We provide software products and solutions for managing the complexities of the 21st-century electric grid, which now has two-way power flow down to homes and businesses.

JERRY HERDEN: How did you first get connected with Cherry Bekaert?

TIM ALLEN: Nate and I have been friends for over 15 years. In 2021 Nate worked for us as a contract employee prior to joining Cherry Bekaert. After his time working for PXiSE and joining Cherry Bekaert, he identified areas where our two companies would benefit from working together.

NATE REGIMBAL: I'll add that it's been a strong relationship between our organizations. We have served as a trusted advisor and helped accelerate PXiSE's product launch activities. We are now transitioning to become an alliance partner as well, and the relationship will only strengthen.

JERRY HERDEN: PXiSE and Cherry Bekaert have partnered on end-to-end design and replatforming of an IEEE 2030.5 DER Management and Communications Platform. Nate, what does this mean and what will the product enable utilities to do?

NATE REGIMBAL: PXiSE's DER Management and Communications Platform helps utilities register, monitor, organize, and schedule the dispatch of customer distributed energy resources. This includes energy storage and solar photovoltaics via a cloud-native server running the IEEE 2030.5 protocol.

NATE REGIMBAL: The platform allows electric utilities and power aggregators to gain visibility and manage thousands of customer DERs. It's an essential first step in understanding, modeling, and managing the grid of the future and integrating renewable energy.

JERRY HERDEN: Tim, what are the benefits of this solution and how does it prepare utilities for the grid of the future?

TIM ALLEN: The benefits include more granular visibility and control of distributed resources. Smart meters provide household-level consumption, but they can't differentiate native load from new behaviors like home batteries, vehicle charging, or intentional battery dispatch.

TIM ALLEN: An edge gateway provides granular visibility, data collection, and control. That data enables planners' analysis and real-time insights for grid operators. Instead of only seeing that voltage is too high or too low, operators can see which distributed resources may be contributing and design programs to autonomously dispatch those resources to resolve issues.

TIM ALLEN: The product's visibility and communication backbone are the beginning of the journey to operate the 21st-century grid safely and reliably.

JERRY HERDEN: Jon, you were heavily involved in application development for this product. What was that like from a technical perspective?

JON SCHRADER: We were brought on to augment PXiSE's existing development team and operated as an extension of their development and product teams. We helped architect, guide, and fill gaps for the launch and development of the IEEE 2030.5 server product.

JON SCHRADER: We started with an Architecture Design Solution, or ADS, to understand the industry and translate PXiSE's domain expertise into customer needs and a software solution. We identified Microsoft Azure as the initial deployment platform and worked through infrastructure, application, data components, security requirements, and marketplace launch requirements.

JON SCHRADER: It has been a collaborative effort throughout.

JERRY HERDEN: Tim, what was your experience collaborating with Cherry Bekaert?

TIM ALLEN: Overall, it's been a great experience. Cherry Bekaert's team empowered our staff and enabled them to grow in confidence. First, they provided additional resources to support our team on a challenging project. Second, they brought cloud computing skills we needed.

TIM ALLEN: Cherry Bekaert plugged into our development team and formed a partnership throughout the product development. It's been an amazing journey, and we've continued to identify additional areas for collaboration. We're developing an alliance agreement to go to market together and exploring future joint projects.

NATE REGIMBAL: We're grateful for the relationship. Tim and I have worked closely to identify particular capabilities within Cherry Bekaert relevant to the product launch and other business matters. Conversations between members of the PXiSE team and the Cherry Bekaert team have been very fruitful and helpful in guiding how our relationship continues forward.

JERRY HERDEN: Jon, anything to add?

JON SCHRADER: Working with the PXiSE team has felt like one big family. The development and delivery team has been global, and through daily scrum stand-ups, scheduled design sessions, and retrospectives, the software delivery team has worked efficiently across time zones. It's been a great partnership from our perspective.

JERRY HERDEN: From a customer implementation standpoint, Nate, what does this product bring in terms of simplicity?

NATE REGIMBAL: Deployment is straightforward and can be done by customers themselves. Product documentation walks customers through configuring their environment, deploying the product, configuring the product, and starting use.

NATE REGIMBAL: For customers without available resources or who want assistance, PXiSE and Cherry Bekaert offer support and implementation services. The product will also be available on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, which will be a key entry point for customers to obtain and deploy the product.

JERRY HERDEN: Jon, can you add a few comments on the process of obtaining it from the Azure Marketplace and setting it up in a customer's environment?

JON SCHRADER: The goal has been to make the 2030.5 product easily accessible from the Azure Marketplace and as close to one-click deployment as possible. We designed a lightweight, cloud-native server and worked with PXiSE to architect a small-footprint product for easy deployment in cloud marketplaces like Azure.

JERRY HERDEN: Nate, how can someone learn more about this product?

NATE REGIMBAL: You can learn more at pxisenergy.com, or you can read about it and download it from the Azure Marketplace.

JERRY HERDEN: Any closing thoughts?

TIM ALLEN: Thank you for hosting this discussion. This is the first product in a family of cloud-native products we will develop to provide solutions for control and optimization of distributed energy resources.

NATE REGIMBAL: As we develop PXiSE products and jointly serve clients, we're also identifying opportunities to apply PXiSE's controls expertise with what Cherry Bekaert brings in cloud architecture, asset monitoring, advanced analytics, and launching managed solutions on leading marketplaces.

JERRY HERDEN: That's a wrap for today's discussion. Thanks again, Tim, Nate, and Jon. Feel free to like and share this podcast and stay tuned for the next Digital Journeys.