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    1. Distributed Energy

    DER manager AutoGrid names new CEO to succeed Founder Narayan

    March 2, 2023
    Ruben Llanes was named as AutoGrid CEO to succeed founder Amit Narayan. Llanes, a longtime Schneider Electric executive and sales leader, also will take responsibility for the parent company’s North American Power and Grid business segment
    Auto Grid 640120e7c04b0
    Ruben Llanes
    Ruben Llanes

    Distributed energy and virtual power plant aggregator AutoGrid has a new CEO as it moves forward into a new era as part of Schneider Electric.

    Ruben Llanes was named as AutoGrid CEO to succeed founder Amit Narayan. Llanes, a longtime Schneider Electric executive and sales leader, also will take responsibility for the parent company’s North American Power and Grid business segment.

    Narayan will continue to serve on the AutoGrid board of directors and play a future role in Schneider’s work with energy consumers on energy use, efficiency and bi-directional flow of power.

    AutoGrid aggregates distributed energy resources such as residential solar, battery storage and combines them in a way to deliver at times where the grid needs that power the most.

    “Amit has been a true vision in building AutoGrid into the technology leader in virtual power plants and DERMS (distributed energy resource management systems),” Nadege Petit, chief innovation officer at Schneider Electric, said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with him to build the new energy landscape for a more digitized, electrified and sustainable world. I welcome Ruben to his new role at AutoGrid as we accelerate our efforts to democratize access to renewable energy sources and help utilities and prosumers decarbonize.”

    Narayan founded AutoGrid in 2011 as a means of using software to manage and redirect distributed energy resources where most needed and make the overall grid more efficient. Schneider Electric’s acquisition of AutoGrid was announced in May 2022.

    In an October 2022 interview with EnergyTech, AutoGrid general manager and senior vice president Rahul Kar noted that the near future grid will be connected to countless new projects from rooftop solar to EV charging stations, both residential and commercial and battery storage. All of those generation points will need some forward-predicting and responsive market acumen from both artificial intelligence technology and experienced human leadership.

    “Lots of infrastructure is getting deployed,” Kar pointed out during the interview at the Schneider Electric Innovation Summit in Las Vegas. “You need a layer to bring all those assets together.”

    AutoGrid aggregates multiple GWs of capacity in markets such as Hong Kong, India and Texas. The ability to move energy around, and balance it, has helped avoid widespread grid outages during high-demand and extreme weather events.

    “We don’t own the assets, but we can bring all the elements together (to create capacity) and avoid (gas-fired) peaker plants,” he said during a few moments with EnergyTech at the Schneider Electric Innovation Summit.

    Amit Narayan
    Amit Narayan
    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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