To thrive in changing times, we must adapt and innovate. As a clean energy leader, AVANGRID’s vision is to build on innovation that can scale new and emerging technologies over time. That’s why we embrace innovation as a core value and are committed to investing in a smarter and cleaner energy future to meet the needs of our customers, improve reliability, reduce environmental impacts and enable climate change goals.

Our efforts continue to include creating an innovative ecosystem that attracts and leverages outside talent with a diversity of perspectives and explores new ways of collaboration with the aim of designing solutions that create sustainable value for society and our stakeholders.

Innovation is a strategic pillar of the organization that affects all business and activities. In 2020, AVANGRID invested more than $79 million in innovative projects, a 17% increase over the previous year. This diverse portfolio of projects is helping us achieve our ESG+F goals, as we target our innovations to better serve our customers, communities, business operations and shareholders.

An example of technology improvements aimed at the customer experience is the work of the Smart Grids Innovation and Planning team in Avangrid Networks. They are roadmapping our ability to enable high levels of distributed, renewable generation, electric vehicles, heat pumps and battery storage.

By strategically investing in foundational technologies such as smart meters (AMI), Substation and Circuit Automation, Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) Management Systems (DERMS) across our operating companies, we enable DER visibility and control real-time operations and improved reliability.

How we plan and operate the system will evolve, and we’ll meet the demand by implementing new tools, revamping our processes and training our people for future capabilities. Leveraging data, a key company asset, will also serve to improve decision making and increase value for our customers. For example, our New York energy storage pilots are informing the ability of this emerging technology to store energy and deliver electric distribution system and customer benefits by executing on multiple use cases.

Electrification of heating and transportation has been identified as a significant emissions reduction opportunity. That is why we are embracing electrification of heating with industry-leading energy efficiency programs, and we are enabling transportation electrification by investing in critical electric vehicle charging infrastructure with make-ready programs and managed EV charging approaches that will assist with addressing customer concerns around range anxiety, as well as inform grid capacity management.

In addition to our commitment to promoting EV deployment for the broader community, we are also looking for opportunities to increase and deploy electric pool, medium and heavy-duty bucket trucks and 100% electric mini excavators for our Networks fleets.

Enabling the Digital Energy Future Today With Avangrid’s Information Technology Innovation

The AVANGRID Information Technology Department is helping to make the digital energy future a reality today. IT Innovation works across AVANGRID business lines and partners with technology providers to

execute small-scale pilots and proofs of concepts that leverage the latest developments in advanced data analytics, robotic process automation, edge computing, augmented reality and more. IT’s work in digital innovation has garnered several awards and recognitions in recent years, including the SAP Utilities Excellence in Operations Award, the prestigious SAP SAPPHIRE Innovation Award and the enerTic Digital Growth Award, to name a few.