The NRECA Research Incubator accelerates the transition of technologies from seed funded grid ideas to marketable products through a network of data, business resources, and pilot and demonstration services.

The NRECA Incubator model provides guidance and acts as a catalyst for what technologies and novel analytics will work across the spectrum of grid entities. It can assist with costing and new data-driven business models, and matchmaking opportunities to bring valuable research and development to the community and market. We advocate for demonstration, acting as a trusted representative for cooperatives and creating demonstration cohorts with real commercialization capability.

Why the NRECA Research Incubator is Important

In public-private research, efforts often reach an inflection point where datasets are needed to test newly developed algorithms. Some of the best data analysis does not see commercial implementation because the entities involved do not have real data available to validate the prototypes, understand the data sets at the level necessary, or have real users with whom to interact during testing. NRECA's Research Incubator takes projects that are partial—not necessarily full start up, federal projects—and gives them the transition pathway across the typical pitfalls in innovation to successful commercialization.

NRECA is Uniquely Positioned to Help

NRECA is a trusted resource for its members and conducts research on their behalf. We work continually to explore the opportunities and challenges facing our members and to provide insights and guidance to support decision-making. We regularly work in partnership with other industry stakeholders to represent cooperative needs and perspectives and amplify their voice in critical forums.

NRECA Research securely manages static and streaming data from 60+ utilities and often acts as the conduit for cooperative data-sets to other research groups. We have collaborated with national labs, startups and researchers on dozens of algorithm development projects. Through our experience and respected reputation, we are well-positioned to bring together qualified vendors, national labs, federal organizations and cooperatives to support effective testing and demonstration of data algorithms and advancement to successful commercialization.

How the Incubator Works

The incubator provides a commercial data platform with ability to scale up and automate data algorithm testing activities, giving startups and researchers an easy way to test their products against real utility data. Cooperatives can participate in collaborative, innovative research while their data remains secured on the platform. Data is considered anonymous, unless a specific need for metadata is approved. This prevents the possibility that cooperative data may be sold to testing organizations, which presents additional risk and may not be in the best interest of cooperatives. Cooperatives retain their right and autonomy to data ownership, while being able to participate in cutting-edge projects as a collective.