Blue Pillar Raises $10M to Expand Its Building-to-Grid Energy Partnerships

Blue Pillar, a startup with software to network and control building backup generators and critical power systems, is looking for more partners to help it put its expertise to use on the grid side of the meter, and add distributed energy resources to the mix -- and it’s raising money to make it happen. Blue Pillar got its start in 2006 building software to test and control backup generators and power equipment for hospitals, military bases and other critical sites. As of the end of 2016, the company had just under 600 customer sites using its Aurora software platform, representing a 400 percent growth over the past five years. While Blue Pillar hasn’t named any other energy services partners beyond NRG, it’s expecting to make some announcements in the coming weeks, he said. But Blue Pillar is also capable of integrating solar PV, batteries, fuel cells and other distributed energy resources into its platform, he noted.