As Clean Power Buying Surges, LevelTen Helps Firms Track Energy Data  

LevelTen Energy, a Seattle-based startup that helps corporations make renewable energy purchases, on Wednesday released new performance monitoring software it says allows users to better track energy usage, market data, and other key metrics.

Launched in 2016, LevelTen seeks to give more businesses access to the power purchase agreements that large corporations and other energy buyers negotiate directly with wind and solar developers, rather than paying for energy through an electric utility. The startup’s products and services are designed to help facilitate such purchase agreements. The company’s software compiles performance information from the solar panels, wind turbines, and other equipment that produce power for LevelTen’s customers to use. This data helps customers figure out how well each energy supplier might help them reach their sustainability goals.

Globally, corporate clean energy buying has set record highs in each of the past two years, according to a report by the research service BloombergNEF. Companies headquartered in the US accounted for more than 60 percent of the 13.4 gigawatts of clean energy that businesses purchased in 2018, according to the report; the two biggest purchasers were Facebook (NASDAQ: [[ticker:FB]]) and AT&T (NYSE: [[ticker:T]]).

The new performance monitoring features in LevelTen’s software represent the latest phase in the startup’s efforts to modernize clean energy buying. Users can view information on the emissions impact of clean energy purchases they’ve made, track regional energy market data, and analyze projections of future renewable energy production, LevelTen says. Corporations that have multiple power purchase agreements can aggregate information from all those sources using a “single portfolio view” feature within the new software, the startup says.

Previously, customers had stored all that information across various spreadsheets and data sources, LevelTen says.

“By providing instant access to a comprehensive dashboard of performance data, we’re giving corporations the tools they need to more effectively manage,” their power purchase agreements, Andrew Bishop, LevelTen’s director of product, says in a news release.

LevelTen has supported its growth and operations in part by raising outside funding from investors. The startup’s most recent funding round, announced earlier this summer, was a $20.5 million investment led by San Francisco-based Prelude Ventures.

Author: Jeff Buchanan

Jeff formerly led Xconomy’s Seattle coverage since. Before that, he spent three years as editor of Xconomy Wisconsin, primarily covering software and biotech companies based in the Badger State. A graduate of Vanderbilt, he worked in health IT prior to being bit by the journalism bug.