Startup WIT goes after microgrids in developing countries

There’s a ton of data involved with smart grids, and one startup called World Infrastructure Technologies (WIT) is championing a way to visualize and monitor that data.

WIT presented at the GreenBeat 2010 innovation competition today. Its product monitors and maintains information about energy assets, from generation down to the pole. Taking the raw data about transformers and feeders, WIT then visualizes the information with “heat maps,” which lets grid operators see vulnerabilities on the grid and address them.

The company’s CEO Charles Lawson said that its technology could be used to create small microgrids in developing countries that could then power a whole village.

“We’re one a  few applied solutions out there,” Lawson said. “Our big competitors are the GE’s… (but) at least for the smaller energy companies we’re an a lot cheaper solution.”