ev.energy and Sense have announced a strategic partnership aimed at helping utilities detect, monitor, and manage distributed energy resources (DERs) directly from advanced meters. The collaboration integrates Sense’s Waveform AI — delivered through AMI 2.0 metering — with ev.energy’s Autonomous Grid-Edge Stack, extending DER management from bulk system-level load control to household-by-household orchestration. The companies said the integration is designed to support ratepayer affordability and grid resilience through auto-enrollment programs, with initial rollouts planned across the U.S. Northeast and West Coast.
Highlights
- Integration pairs Sense Waveform AI on AMI 2.0 meters with ev.energy’s DER orchestration platform
- Auto-enrollment model targets households with older EV chargers, PV inverters, or EVs lacking telematics
- AMI data provides redundancy when vehicle cloud APIs or OCPP connections fail during peak events
- Initial joint rollout focused on U.S. Northeast and West Coast utility territories
Closing the Grid-Edge Visibility Gap
U.S. electrification is accelerating, with more than 7 million EVs on the road alongside growing residential solar and battery adoption. Utilities face rising pressure to maintain reliability without driving up rates. According to analysis from ev.energy and The Brattle Group cited in the announcement, optimizing EV charging timing could help utilities avoid $30 billion in annual system costs by 2035 and potentially reduce household energy bills by up to 10%.
Despite ev.energy’s hardware-agnostic platform reaching what the company describes as 89% market coverage in North America, utility EV programs typically see only 3% to 5% household participation. The company attributes this enrollment ceiling to limited device visibility and friction in manual onboarding. Programs that rely solely on telematics or cloud APIs also carry a single point of failure: if the connection drops, the utility loses control during critical peak events.
How the Integration Works
Sense’s Waveform AI detects device-level activity at the meter, while ev.energy’s platform orchestrates those assets into a dispatchable grid resource. The companies outlined three immediate advantages for utilities:
- Expanded program access: By turning the smart meter into an automated enrollment engine, utilities can reach households with older “dumb” chargers, PV inverters, or EVs without built-in telematics — extending the addressable market to all DER owners behind an upgraded meter.
- Redundancy for critical programs: Layering AMI data alongside vehicle telematics and OCPP connections provides a backup verification path. If a cloud link to a vehicle drops, the AMI feed maintains visibility of the load shift.
- Audit-ready measurement: Higher-fidelity meter data supports Public Utility Commission rate cases, providing evidence of the financial value delivered by every shifted kilowatt.
“The grid is no longer a one-way street; it’s a dynamic network of grid citizens,” said Nick Woolley, CEO and Co-Founder of ev.energy. “By layering Sense’s AMI intelligence over our platform, we are giving utilities the surgical tools they need to reach every household, maintain a reliable connection to every device, and orchestrate the grid edge device-by-device and feeder-by-feeder. Together with utilities, we can ensure that the energy transition is resilient, equitable, and delivers real value to every ratepayer.”
From System-Level to Transformer-Level Control
The partnership also targets ev.energy’s NetworkSync Bundle, an active Non-Wires Alternative (NWA) designed to manage local distribution constraints. Where traditional virtual power plants focus on system-wide peak flattening, the integrated stack is intended to let utilities manage thermal limits at the transformer and feeder level.
“Sense brings real-time grid intelligence to the distribution grid with software on the latest generation of AMI meters,” said Mike Phillips, CEO and Co-Founder of Sense. “By combining our ability to see the power flow at the edge of the grid all the way down to individual devices with ev.energy’s proven ability to orchestrate those devices, we are creating solutions that can provide the grid-responsive load flexibility that is critical to controlling costs. We’re excited to start this journey with our shared utility clients to make energy more affordable for everyone.”
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