GridPoint Hires Xcel Energy CIO Carlson

Smart grid software developer GridPoint has hired the utility executive behind of the country's largest smart grid pilot projects, making it the latest smart grid startup pulling in executives from the ranks of big business.

Michael Carlson, former chief information officer and vice president for Xcel Energy, has taken an executive position with GridPoint, the Arlington, Va.-based startup announced Wednesday. 

At Xcel, one of Carlson's biggest jobs has been coordinating its $100 million SmartGridCity project, which is in the midst of transforming Boulder, Colo. into a demonstration platform for smart grid technologies like smart meters and in-home energy monitoring, distribution automation and integration of solar and wind power into the grid.  

GridPoint is already one of the partners on the project — others include Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, OSISoft, Current Group and Accenture. Besides Xcel, GridPoint is involved in smart grid projects with Duke Energy and Austin Energy.

With more than $220 million raised since its 2003 founding, GridPoint is one of the better-capitalized smart grid startups out there — a fact that helped it buy plug-in vehicle charging technology developer V2Green in September (see GridPoint Gets $120M, Buys V2Green). GridPoint's main focus is software to manage power and information flows between utilities and their customers to help manage things like turning down home and business energy use at peak power demand times and integrating renewable power and plug-in vehicles to a utility's power delivery and billing operations.

GridPoint is also developing software to help Xcel manage its efforts to store large amounts of power from wind turbines with sodium sulfur batteries, one of several projects around the world seeking to find a better way to integrate the intermittent resource of wind power into everyday grid operations (see GridPoint to Manage Wind Power Battery Storage).

Given GridPoint's already close relationship with Xcel, Carlson "might be more beneficial in terms of applying his experience at Xcel to other potential customers," said Ben Schuman, analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. "I think Mike will also allow GridPoint to help potential customers create demonstration-type projects similar to Boulder to qualify for stimulus funding."

GridPoint is working with utilities to "put together stimulus-ready packages with solutions including energy efficiency, load management, renewable energy management, storage management, electric vehicle management, and online energy management for consumers," spokeswoman Suzanne Lauer said in an email. 

John Quealy, managing director of equity research with Canaccord Adams, added that Carlson's hiring is likely part of a growing trend.

"You're likely to see more utility/energy exec migration to emerging growth companies to help technology firms strategize for a regulatory-driven marketplace," he wrote in an email. One example he gave is Andy White, the General Electric executive who joined Redwood City, Calif.-based smart meter networking startup Trilliant as CEO in March (see Trilliant Lands GE Vet as CEO).