BOULDER — Tendril — a local smart-grid, energy-management company — is on a cloud as it nearly tripled its workforce this year to 200 people.
The startup has also attracted $75 million in venture capital and partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, such as Lockheed Martin and General Electric.
And at the center of all this activity is an Internet-based platform, or “cloud” — Tendril Connect — that enables electricity consumers and utilities to plug in, get information and manage their energy demands.
“It has taken seven years to get to this platform,” said Kent Dickson, Tendril chief technology officer.
When Tim Enwall started Tendril in 2004, he was looking for energy- saving devices, including a system that would tell drivers where there was open space in a parking garage.
With the arrival of Adrian Tuck, two years later, the company began focusing on smart-grid technology — which gathers information and manages power from the plant through the wires to the home electrical socket.
“Adrian has become one of the industry’s leading spokesmen on the smart grid,” said Christine Shapard, executive director of the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association.
Tendril’s aim is to build a business by helping homeowners and consumers tap in and use that grid.
The company’s development of home management tools attracted major appliance makers — GE, Whirlpool and Siemens — as partners.
GE, for example, has developed a prototype smart refrigerator that has four energy-use levels and the ability to automatically defrost in the middle of the night, Dickson said.
But in 2010, the company made a key shift and tactical purchase, said Chet Geschickter, an analyst with GTM Research in Boston.
“They started out as a hardware- based model, but that market hasn’t developed yet,” Geschickter said. “So, they made a strategic acquisition of GroundedPower — a software and database company.”
That helped create Tendril Connect, a product that the Boulder company could promote and sell now.
“It gave them more flexibility to go into the market,” Geschickter said.
For consumers, plugging into Tendril’s cloud will give real-time data on electricity consumption and a measure of how they are doing against their average consumption and their peers.
When a house has a smart thermostat, plugs and appliances, a homeowner can control the devices from a computer or a mobile phone.
Using GroundedPower resources, Tendril is also creating an analysis and energy-saving tips for users through a service called Tendril Energize.
In a Cape Cod, Mass., pilot program, customers cut their electricity consumption by an average of 9 percent with Tendril Energize.
When a utility plugs in on the other side of the cloud, it gets a better understanding of how and when its customers are using power.
Tendril has 40 utility clients, including Kansas City Power & Light and San Diego Gas & Electric.
Tendril does have head-to-head competitors, such as People Power and EcoFactor, and challengers from other sectors.
Google had a home “power meter” but suspended the service in September. In October, telecommunications giant Verizon started offering a home-energy-management service.
Meanwhile, Tendril announced a string of partnerships with the makers of heat pumps, smart thermostats, smart meters and a security company that will offer Tendril energy management with its electronic surveillance.
“Not all of these will work out, but Tendril is placing bets on as many horses as it can,” Geschickter said.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
