California Energy Commission Selects Intertie as a Recipient of the BRIDGE 2020 Grant Award
BRIDGE Grant Funds to Help Intertie Further Develop Its Innovative EV ChargePod™
SAUSALITO, Calif., February 2022 –– Intertie Incorporated, an industry leader in clean energy technology, announced today that it was selected by the California Energy Commission (CEC) as a recipient of its “Bringing Rapid Innovation Development to Green Energy (BRIDGE) 2020” award. Intertie will receive $2 million of funding to further development of its EV ChargePod™, a modular microgrid that integrates intelligent energy storage, solar PV, and electric vehicle (EV) fast charging solutions.
Intertie started developing the EV ChargePod™ in 2017 using funds awarded by the CEC’s CalSEED initiative. This funding enabled Intertie to successfully build a prototype of the EV ChargePod™, which subsequently received commercial validation from the Shell GameChanger Accelerator™ Powered by NREL (GCxN) as part of its Electric Vehicle Fast Charging cohort.
Building off the successful prototype and commercial validation of the EV ChargePod™, Intertie will be leveraging CEC BRIDGE funds to develop advanced power electronics that can integrate an EV fast charger with a DC-coupled solar microgrid. The integration of these technologies will decouple the EV charging process from the grid, reduce the impact of fast charging on a building’s electrical panel, and allow for ultra-fast charging to take place at almost any location.
Speaking on the impact this grant has had on the company, Intertie CEO and Founder Richard Mrlik stated, “The CEC Bridge Grant has allowed us to solve a missing piece in the DC-coupled microgrid: to provide fast charging from multiple DC sources using a small grid connection. As a small company that relies on private financing, it is difficult to get financing for hardware solutions. The CEC's grant program has allowed us to bridge this gap.”
The BRIDGE 2020 grant, part of the CEC’s Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) Program, competitively awards follow-on funding for the most promising energy technologies that have previously received an award from a CEC program or US federal agency. BRIDGE 2020 seeks to 1) help clean energy start-up companies bridge the gap between when their successful publicly-funded project ends and new public funding becomes available; and 2) mobilize more early-stage capital in the clean energy space by providing non-dilutive, matching investments in promising clean energy companies alongside investors and commercial partners. This provides increased support for the most promising clean energy technologies that have already attracted interest from the market as they are developed and continue their path to market adoption.
“This project shows off a promising clean technology that is exactly the sort of thing we need to lower the cost of installing fast charging throughout California,” said Energy Commission Specialist Joshua Croft.
As the company’s flagship product, the EV ChargePod™ will provide use cases and benefits for a myriad of different customers as it enters the market: commercial property owners will be able to save money, increase reliability, and monetize new revenues while reducing their properties’ carbon footprint; the product’s minimal space requirements and impact on electrical panels allow it to be installed virtually anywhere, alleviating EV drivers’ range anxiety concerns; utilities will be able to increase grid utilization and reliability, mitigate solar overgeneration and peak demand challenges, and spend significantly less to upgrade their distribution systems. Altogether, Intertie’s EV ChargePod™ will help California electrify its transportation sector and realize its ambitious climate goals.
About Intertie
Intertie Inc. is a Bay Area-based clean energy technology company with a comprehensive product portfolio that includes EV charging, solar-plus-storage, and building controls and automation solutions. Intertie’s patented technologies have been funded by some of the premier venture capital firms and have received awards from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Shell New Energies, as well as the California Energy Commission’s BRIDGE grant program and California Sustainable Energy Entrepreneur Development (CalSEED) program. Intertie’s vision is to scale its award-winning technology into productized microgrids that transform commercial properties into renewable energy assets.
Interested in transforming your property into a clean energy asset? Contact sales@intertie.com for more information.
