2018 Business Elite Awards - US Business News

US BUSINESS NEWS / 2018 Business Elite Awards 19 , mPrest mPrest to Partner with Southern Company for Grid Modernization and Distributed Smart Energy Applications Project will bring Israel’s smart grid technology to leading U.S. energy company to improve energy-related solutions for customers. mPrest, the mission- critical monitoring, control and big data analytics software leader for the internet of energy market, and Southern Company, America’s premier energy company, have announced a collaboration to develop and implement a solution to further enhance the resiliency, efficiency and flexibility of Southern Company’s robust distribution system. mPrest’s intelligent grid “System of Systems” applications directly address the challenges of the evolving energy industry, which include rapidly decentralizing networks, sharp changes in energy demand, extreme weather events and cyber security threats. As the first step in the partnership, Southern Company and mPrest were awarded a grant from BIRD Energy, a program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Israeli Ministry of Energy, jointly with the Israel Innovation Authority and managed by the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation, to develop a distribution product that turns grid- edge devices into fully integrated tools for enhanced management at the edges of the electric grid. Distribution technologies like this allow for optimal distribution energy management, resulting in energy and cost savings and reliable integration of distributed energy resources. “Southern Company remains at the forefront of technology innovation for energy production, delivery and use,” said Stan Connally, Southern Company Executive Vice President of Operations. “Our partnership with mPrest allows us to increase grid flexibility and improve on products and services we provide to our customers and communities.” “With the evolving expectations of savvy U.S. utility customers, we are excited to be collaborating with Southern Company to integrate advanced grid technology,” said Ron Halpern, Chief Commercial Officer of mPrest. “Our products are leading the smart energy revolution and enabling utilities to take full advantage of the emerging capabilities of the industrial IoT. The result will be a smarter, more resilient grid that uses data to manage and leverage existing assets and infrastructure.” mPrest’s “System of Systems” is based on dynamic and flexible micro-services architecture, enabling rapid interface of legacy systems, combined with advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide far greater real-time and predictive intelligence and situational awareness. mPrest’s vendor agnostic applications not only reduce power outages and predict asset failure, but they also enable utilities to respond to real- time changes, reduce operational investments, improve security, facilitate integration of distributed energy resources (DERs), and other customer enabling technologies.