Toronto-based company recognized in ABB-powered Build & Operations category for platform that turns data centers into dispatchable grid assets
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, April 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Edgecom Energy, a Toronto-based AI energy management company, has won the Build & Operations category of the Data Center World (DCW) Innovation Challenge powered by ABB, beating thousands of global applications with a pitch to turn data centers into intelligent, dispatchable grid assets.
Now in its fifth year, the Innovation Challenge was held April 22–23 in Washington, D.C., with winners announced from the DCW keynote stage. Edgecom presented before a panel that included the CIO of Aligned Data Centers, senior ABB executives, and representatives from clean energy accelerator Third Derivative. The company manages energy across 230+ large commercial and industrial facilities across 14 states and provinces and has delivered more than $350M in customer savings to date.
The Problem: An Orchestration Gap Between Data Centers and the Grid
As facilities scale to meet AI-driven demand, they are deploying backup generators, battery storage, UPS systems, and massive cooling infrastructure — much of which sits idle once a facility is grid-connected. Every data center is using a “microgrid” to either improve reliability or to even get powered up in the first place. At the same time, these facilities will need to interface with an increasingly complex grid: ISO and RTO wholesale markets, distribution and transmission level peak programs, demand response events, and real-time nodal pricing and other ancillary services all running simultaneously.
Grid operators, meanwhile, are contending with supply crunches, congestion, and rising volatility. Data centers and the grid are each other’s largest counterparts, yet they are barely coordinated. The assets and signals that should work together — generators, batteries, cooling systems, grid programs — are managed today through a patchwork of BMS, SCADA, spreadsheets, and phone calls. A typical 10 MW data center leaves $500,000 to $1.5 million per year on the table in unrealized grid revenue and avoidable energy costs.
“Data centers are becoming power plant operators. The infrastructure is there — the generators, the batteries, the cooling assets. What’s missing is the layer that orchestrates all of it intelligently against a grid that is more complex than ever. That’s the problem Edgecom was built to solve.”
— Behdad Bahrami, Co-founder and CEO, Edgecom Energy
An AI Layer for Data Center Energy Assets
Edgecom’s winning proposal enables data centers to act as reliable, dispatchable grid capacity by unlocking existing flexibility. The platform measures real-time flexible load across backup generation, battery storage, and cooling systems, then forecasts grid stress and coordinates those assets automatically — without compromising uptime.
The result: data centers reduce peak demand charges and earn new revenue from grid programs, while utilities gain verifiable capacity they can count on to defer infrastructure investment. It is a direct response to one of the biggest bottlenecks in scaling digital infrastructure today.
“Data centers are the foundation of the digital economy and the energy transition ahead. As AI workloads grow, so do the demands on power and cooling. At Edgecom, we’re building AI infrastructure as intelligent, dynamic compute containers — overlaying compute demand with the energy market so businesses cut costs and improve efficiency, even when total kilowatt-hours don’t change.”
— Mehdi Parvizi, Co-founder and CTO, Edgecom Energy
A Record of Recognized Innovation
The DCW win adds to prior recognitions, including the ABB Startup Challenge 2024, Shell’s New Energy Challenge 2024, and selection from 260+ global applicants to pitch at EPRI’s Incubatenergy Labs® Pitch Day 2026. CEO Behdad Bahrami was named Energy Innovator of the Year 2024 by the Association of Energy Engineers.
Founded in 2016, Edgecom Energy is backed by ABB Electrification Ventures and GreenSky Ventures, and is expanding its platform into new energy markets and facility types.
About Edgecom Energy
Edgecom Energy provides commercial and industrial consumers with an AI-powered energy management platform that combines real-time facility and grid analytics to reduce costs and emissions while maximizing grid incentives. Learn more at edgecom.ai.
About Data Center World
Data Center World is the annual gathering of the world’s leading data center operators, technologists, utilities, and innovators, produced by Informa PLC in partnership with AFCOM. Held each year in Washington, D.C., the event brings together thousands of senior practitioners and hundreds of solution providers focused on AI-ready infrastructure, sustainable power, and next-generation facilities. For more information, visit datacenterworld.com.
Christine Billinger
Edgecom Energy
cbillinger@edgecom.ai
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