New AI-powered solar asset management tool features digital "agent"

By Kelsey Misbrener | October 15, 2024

Excelsior Energy Capital announced it has entered a multiyear partnership with Proximal Energy, an AI-powered asset management provider for utility-scale solar and energy storage projects. The collaboration will leverage Proximal’s platform to optimize Excelsior’s portfolio of energy storage assets, enabling real-time monitoring and performance enhancement across the firm’s pipeline of 2 GWh of storage projects.

The Excelsior-Proximal collaboration highlights the vast emerging potential of AI in the renewable energy space and showcases Excelsior’s commitment to leadership in industry innovation and value creation. Proximal’s platform will introduce Excelsior to the provider’s proprietary Agentic Asset Management, a system powered by generative AI models that assists asset managers and operations and maintenance (O&M) providers. These digital “agents” have access to all project-related documents — such as user manuals, contracts and warranty information — allowing them to act as knowledgeable colleagues who can instantly answer questions like: “How many modules per string are there?” or “What are the liquidated damages associated with the inverter OEM missing warranty obligations?” Additionally, the “agents” can analyze time-series data when requested — offering users the ability to investigate outages and underperformance events and to calculate KPIs, providing actionable insights into asset performance.

“Excelsior’s decision to partner with Proximal represents a considerable advancement in how we manage and optimize energy storage assets, and we are proud to help guide the renewable energy industry’s innovation on this vital front,” said Chris Frantz, partner and head of operations at Excelsior Energy Capital. “This partnership aligns with our vision to leverage next-generation AI technologies to streamline asset management, reduce operational overhead, and ensure the long-term performance of our projects.”

News item from Excelsior Energy Capital