Utilidata Secures U.S. Manufacturing for NVIDIA-Powered Smart Grid Chip

Utilidata, a grid-edge technology company, today announced a manufacturing partnership with Michigan-based Brooks Utility Products, a manufacturer of electric metering related products for over 150 years, to establish domestic manufacturing for its NVIDIA-powered smart grid chips in the United States’ heartland.

Utilidata is also launching an innovation lab to conduct research and development for its smart grid chips. The partnership with Michigan-based Brooks Utility Products, will bring the product to full commercialization in 2023 with assembly, testing, and use of their meter socket adapter. To meet utility customer demand, commercial-scale production will commence this spring. Portland General Electric and Lake Placid Municipal Power are two current utility customers who use Utilidata’s smart grid chips.

“Brooks is excited to work with Utilidata to bring new technology and innovation to the electric utility market,” said Robert Kiessling, national marketing manager for Brooks Utility Products. “To become cleaner, more resilient, and decentralised, the grid requires technologies such as the smart grid chip.” Combining Utilidata’s revolutionary platform and smart chip technology with Brooks’ emphasis on safe and dependable products results in the best solution for a dynamically evolving electrical grid.”

Utilidata’s innovation lab is located in the Northern Brewery building in Ann Arbor, and serves as the company’s center of excellence for rapid prototyping and design. The facility will expand on the company’s collaboration with Ann Arbor-based Endectra, a University of Michigan spinoff that prototyped the first three generations of the smart grid chip product. Utilidata will recruit from the University of Michigan and other local universities for several immediate high-tech engineering jobs at its Ann Arbour lab.