U.S. DOE grant enables Ndustrial-led team to maximize grid flexibility while reducing costs and food waste in refrigerated operations using AI
RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Ndustrial has received a Phase 1 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to enhance AI systems to maximize grid flexibility and reduce energy costs while ensuring food quality. Under the terms of the grant, Ndustrial will partner with Lineage, ABB and NREL to develop an AI-based thermal algorithm to help energy-intensive food storage providers in the cold chain reduce costs while maintaining food safety. The team estimates this will ultimately unlock a $1.2 trillion energy cost savings opportunity.
The model will build on Ndustrial’s existing AI-powered process to deepen data granularity to help safely shift when cold chain facilities use energy. The insights focus on predicting changes in food temperature during curtailment events to minimize impact on the grid and boost cost savings. The project will start at Lineage’s $70M facility serving 14 food companies in Statesville, NC, and has the potential to unlock intelligent and automated load management for 60,000+ refrigerated facilities across the US alone.
“Billions of data points across hundreds of facilities reveal that we’re using too much energy to keep our food cold for no scientific reason,” said Ndustrial co-founder and CTO John Crawford, who is leading the project as principal investigator. “This grant will help us confirm the ideal way to safely adjust temperatures in the cold chain to deliver major savings that can help control food costs. This grant is especially meaningful to me, as bringing federal funds to my hometown will support local jobs.”
“Lineage’s goal is to transform the food supply chain to eliminate waste and help feed the world,” said Alex Woolf, VP of Research and Development at Lineage. “Ndustrial’s platform has proven to help us reduce energy intensity at facilities by more than 30% – the equivalent of nearly 250,000 homes’ annual electricity use — by providing data visibility, optimizing temperature controls, and shifting operations to low-cost times where possible. The Ndustrial team is uniquely positioned to do this work because of their holistic approach to energy management which accounts for production data, detailed temperature data, facility energy data, and market signals all in a common platform.”
Part of the Small Business Innovation Research program, the DOE grant will fund roughly one year of research. A commercialization period will follow this to help deploy real-time temperature monitoring and AI-backed energy suggestions at refrigerated facilities across the world. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will independently validate the results of the project and simulate the impacts of deploying the solution in various grid environments and applications.
Grant awardees will be invited to apply for a Phase 2 award at the conclusion of this project, which would involve additional research to support the electrification of Transport Refrigeration Units, which keep more than 500,000 trailers cold on US roads. ABB would be involved in providing sustainability advisory services along with infrastructure support during this phase.
About Ndustrial
Ndustrial provides software and services to help the $60B industrial market combat inflation and climate change by optimizing energy intensity — the crucial metric of energy, emissions and cost required for one unit of production. By uniting production data with energy usage for some of the most complex, energy-guzzling operations in the world, Ndustrial’s AI-powered solutions enable smarter energy decisions in real time. The company has helped customers like Lineage, ABB and W.L. Gore (makers of Gore-Tex) avoid over $100M in energy spend to date. Learn more at ndustrial.io.
SOURCE Ndustrial
