Powering Decisions: New Partnership Embeds Energy Intelligence into Site Selection

CUMMING, Ga. and HOUSTON – April 13, 2026 – In a move reflecting energy’s increasingly decisive role in corporate strategy, GIS WebTech LLC and Distributed Energy Clearinghouse™ (DECH) today announced a strategic partnership. The collaboration will embed advanced energy intelligence directly into GIS WebTech's GURU Site Selection platform, providing businesses and economic developers with powerful new tools to navigate the complex landscape of power costs, grid reliability, and sustainable energy opportunities.

The integration aims to transform how companies choose locations for new and expanding operations. As businesses grapple with volatile energy markets and the growing threat of power disruptions, this alliance positions detailed energy analysis at the core of the site selection process, moving it from a secondary consideration to a primary driver of competitive advantage.

The New Energy Equation in Site Selection

For decades, site selection decisions hinged on logistics, labor, and local incentives. Today, a new, non-negotiable factor has risen to the top of the C-suite agenda: energy. This shift is driven by a confluence of powerful trends that are reshaping the economic and operational risks for businesses across all sectors.

Power prices are on a steady incline, with national average residential rates climbing 21% over the past five years. These increases are not uniform, creating wide regional disparities. States in the Northeast and California often face electricity costs significantly higher than the national average, while regions with abundant natural gas or hydroelectric power offer more competitive rates. This volatility makes understanding location-specific energy costs essential for long-term financial planning.

Compounding the issue of cost is the critical challenge of grid resilience. Over 70% of the U.S. electricity grid is more than 25 years old, leaving it vulnerable to disruptions. Extreme weather events, responsible for over 80% of power outages since 2000, are growing in frequency and intensity. Simultaneously, the grid is facing unprecedented demand, most notably from the explosion of power-hungry data centers required for artificial intelligence, which can consume as much electricity as a small city. This strain is leading to power shortage warnings and long delays for new grid connections in mature markets.

“Site-selection consultants need defensible, location-specific data to help their clients compare markets and manage risk, and economic development organizations need the same data to market their key properties to target industries,” said Ronald Bertasi, CEO of GIS WebTech. “We want to position ourselves as the leader in the nexus of energy and real estate.”

Fusing Geospatial Tech with Advanced Energy Analytics

The partnership between GIS WebTech and DECH directly addresses this new reality by merging two powerful technologies. GIS WebTech’s GURU platform is a market leader in site selection technology, built natively on the Esri platform—the global standard for geographic information system (GIS) software. It already provides users with deep layers of geospatial and economic data, including demographics, workforce analytics, and infrastructure details.

The collaboration injects a new, critical layer of intelligence from Distributed Energy Clearinghouse™. DECH provides a sophisticated Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that moves far beyond analyzing simple utility rates. Its analytics evaluate the holistic energy profile of a potential site, including the value and risk-mitigation impact of incorporating distributed energy resources (DERs) like on-site solar panels and battery storage systems.

DECH’s methodology considers a site’s specific location, a business’s unique energy usage patterns, the financial value of uninterrupted business continuity, and the performance of various DER technologies. This allows for side-by-side site comparisons and scenario-based analysis, enabling a company to not only see the current energy cost but also model future costs and resilience based on potential investments in distributed energy.

“We are looking forward to working with DECH, one of the most innovative companies in energy analytics,” Bertasi added, highlighting the strategic fit between the two firms.

A Strategic Tool for High-Stakes Industries

This enhanced platform is poised to deliver immediate value to energy-intensive industries where power is a significant operational cost and a critical vulnerability. The data center sector, in particular, stands to benefit. As AI development accelerates, the demand for data processing and storage is creating an arms race for locations with cheap, abundant, and reliable power. The integrated GURU platform will allow data center developers to pinpoint optimal sites that balance energy costs with grid stability and the potential for renewable energy integration.

The trend of reshoring manufacturing to North America also underscores the need for such tools. Modern manufacturing facilities are highly automated and energy-dependent, and any power disruption can lead to millions in lost production. The ability to accurately assess a location’s energy profile—including the potential for microgrids to ensure continuous operation—is a powerful competitive differentiator.

“Rising power costs and issues of grid resilience and local power reliability concerns increasingly influence where businesses decide to locate. Power prices and reliable power supply have become front and center for businesses and have the attention of the C-Suite,” said Richard Zdunkewicz, CEO of Distributed Energy Clearinghouse™. “By combining advanced energy metrics with their cutting-edge GURU site selection technology, GIS WebTech will have an even more powerful offering for their subscribers.”

Empowering Communities to Compete and Build Resilience

Beyond individual corporations, this partnership empowers local and regional economic development organizations (EDOs) to better compete for investment. In the past, communities in high-cost energy regions may have been at a disadvantage. Now, they can use the platform to showcase how investments in DERs can offset high utility rates and enhance reliability, creating a more attractive value proposition.

By providing transparent and defensible energy data, EDOs can more effectively market their key properties to target industries like advanced manufacturing and life sciences. The tool enables them to highlight not just available land, but also the stability of their local grid, their renewable energy potential, and specific opportunities for businesses to lower energy risk. This data-driven approach strengthens their pitch and helps attract high-value employers.

Ultimately, the collaboration between GIS WebTech and DECH may do more than just improve site selection; it could help accelerate the transition to a more resilient and distributed energy grid. By making the value of DERs more transparent and actionable, the platform encourages investment in local energy generation and storage. This fosters greater energy independence for businesses and contributes to a more robust and sustainable economic foundation for the communities they call home. This integration signals a new era where energy intelligence is no longer an afterthought but a foundational component of strategic economic development.