Software

As the role of grids shifts to connecting intermittent supply with moveable demand, firms that can use software and data to match the two will prosper. 

Amber enables customers to access real-time wholesale energy prices. More importantly, SmartShift™ automates the charge & discharge of your battery (or EV) for maximum saving & return.

Atomic Tessellator builds the computational infrastructure for advanced materials development. The platform allows organisations to explore thousands of material candidates through simulation, committing physical resources only to high-confidence options — compressing development cycles from months or years to days.

Headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, the company targets defence, aerospace, and advanced engineering customers who face extreme material performance requirements. Use cases include new materials for EV batteries, carbon capture, fusion reactors, and replacing substances under regulatory scrutiny (PFAS, microplastics). The platform is built on ab-initio (first principles) methods, GPU-accelerated infrastructure, and AI-driven simulation, deployed via hosted cloud, dedicated cloud, or on-premise.

AI-native autonomous control platform for commercial and industrial buildings — using reinforcement learning and a universal hardware gateway to actively shape electrical demand, cut peak loads by 30%+ and deliver verified energy savings without disrupting operations.

Their insight, forged from direct experience with grid-constrained buildings, is that the energy transition is fundamentally a demand control problem: US commercial facilities waste an estimated $250B annually not because they lack power, but because legacy Building Management Systems are static, rules-based and incapable of adapting to real-time grid conditions. Demand charges alone can represent 30–40% of a facility's electricity bill. Brick's thesis is that an AI-native closed-loop control layer — sitting between existing BMS infrastructure and the grid — can structurally solve this.

The Brick platform has three interlocking components. A universal hardware gateway installs in under ten minutes and connects to any existing BMS or HVAC system regardless of brand — a deliberately brand-agnostic approach that incumbent vendors like Siemens and Schneider are structurally disincentivised to replicate, since their own business models depend on proprietary hardware lock-in. A reinforcement learning model then runs a continuous closed-loop optimisation, shaping electrical load in real time to stay within fixed grid limits while maintaining occupant comfort. ,

Batteries are valuable because they provide flexibility, responding faster than other energy technologies, and help maintain grid stability by turning on and off in fractions of a second., Software contributes through improved grid performance, efficient integration of diverse energy sources, simulation and modelling of energy options, optimisation of building energy use (particularly HVAC systems), and guiding organizations in delivering emission reduction goals through accurate measurement and reporting.

Hitachi Energy is one of the most important companies in the energy transition because as electrification accelerates, the grid becomes the critical path. Hitachi Energy is arguably the single most important company in making it actually work.

Formed in 2020 when Hitachi acquired ABB's Power Grids division, it is the custodian of over a century of grid infrastructure technology — including ABB's pioneering HVDC work dating to the 1950s.

The company's portfolio spans the full electricity value chain: transformers (it is the world's largest manufacturer by installed base), high-voltage equipment up to 1,200kV, HVDC and STATCOM power electronics, substation automation, grid control software, and energy storage integration. These technologies are the physical infrastructure that moves electricity from generation to consumption, and every major shift in the energy system — more offshore wind, longer transmission distances, higher renewable penetration, greater grid complexity — increases demand for exactly what Hitachi Energy makes.

HVDC in particular is a strategic bottleneck in the energy transition. Submarine and long-distance land cables connecting offshore wind to load centres, linking national electricity markets, and enabling intercontinental renewable energy flows all depend on HVDC technology. Hitachi Energy holds a commanding position in this market alongside Prysmian (cables) and Siemens Energy (converter stations).

IND's premise is simple but powerful: detect the precursors to failure before faults occur.

Sensors mounted on poles up to 5km apart capture radio-frequency signals emitted by stressed or failing components. These signals are analysed in real time, locating anomalies to within 10m so that maintenance crews can intervene proactively instead of waiting for the next scheduled inspection. The result is a shift from periodic, reactive inspections to continuous, data-driven prevention. IND has solutions for both overhead and underground powerlines, allowing utilities to use a single detection platform across rural bushfire corridors, suburban feeders, and dense urban cables.

Neara is a software company building physics-enabled digital twins for electricity grid infrastructure. The core idea is straightforward but technically formidable: take the fragmented, often inaccurate data that utilities hold about their transmission and distribution networks and combine it with engineering-grade physics simulation to create a geometrically precise, behaviourally accurate 3D model of an entire network. Every pole, tower, conductor, span and substation is modelled in a way that reflects how the real assets actually bend, sag and fail under load, heat, wind, flood and fire conditions.

That physics fidelity is the key differentiator. Neara's models simulate the real-world behaviour of assets rather than just recording their location and specifications. This lets utilities run what-if scenarios at whole-of-network scale: how does the grid respond to a Category 3 hurricane? Where are conductor clearances dangerously close to vegetation after a wet spring? Which spans have hidden thermal capacity that has never been used because conservative blanket standards were applied across the whole network?

Neara has modelled over 15 million infrastructure assets spanning more than 3 million kilometres across four continents. Its customer base includes ~90% of Australian network utilities (Ausgrid, Endeavour, Essential Energy, AusNet, SA Power Networks, Transgrid) and major international utilities including Southern California Edison, CenterPoint Energy (US), ESB Networks (Ireland), ScottishPower (UK) and Hedno (Greece).