Machfu, an industrial Internet of Things technology company, announced today that it has been awarded the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II extension grant for $1 million by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Machfu won the Phase II award in 2017.
The funding will enable Machfu to securely connect all grid assets and bring them to a common information model. This comprises substation devices and distribution assets and includes all devices that speak the IEC61850, DNP3, and Modbus protocols.
“The ability for legacy and modern devices to share information and data in a secure way will help deliver a secure and resilient grid, which is DOE’s goal,” said Prakash Chakravarthi, CEO of Machfu. “Furthermore, the data can be consumed by any number of existing as well as new and innovative applications with existing back-end platforms or new cloud-based solutions.”
Several OEMs are currently partnering with Machfu to create novel grid solutions.
Machfu’s efforts under the previous Phase II work bridged the gap between information technology and operational technology, supporting both legacy and new protocols. The Phase II extension will allow domain experts to quickly and efficiently define applications, customize, and deploy the technologies in a scalable way to benefit the grid operation without worrying about protocols, communication architectures, or back-end systems.
“We are excited to be awarded the Phase II grant by DOE,” said Tim Winter, Machfu’s Chief Technology Officer. “With this investment, we will be able to bring intelligence to the grid edge that can result in several new and novel applications, leading to increased reliability and security for the grid. We expect to work with several utilities during the grant phase.”
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