Smart Software Aims to Break North America's Clean Energy Gridlock

OTTAWA, ON – December 10, 2025

Canada, like the rest of North America, is in a race against time. Ambitious federal and provincial mandates aim to transition the economy to net-zero, electrify transportation, and build a resilient, green energy future. Yet, standing in the way of these critical policy goals is an increasingly congested and complex bottleneck: the electrical grid itself.

Across the continent, a staggering queue of clean energy projects—over 2,600 gigawatts of proposed solar, wind, and storage capacity in the United States alone—is waiting for permission to connect to the grid. This backlog represents a monumental loss of potential clean power, delayed by an interconnection process often described as opaque, slow, and ill-equipped for the 21st century. The problem is compounded by a surge in demand from new, large loads like data centers and widespread EV charging, pushing aging infrastructure to its limits and prompting warnings from reliability organizations about future grid stability.

This is not merely a technical problem for engineers; it is a fundamental public policy challenge. As developers face multi-year delays and uncertain costs, many viable projects are abandoned, stalling climate progress and jeopardizing energy security. Into this environment of high stakes and systemic friction, a new class of digital tools is emerging, promising to bring transparency and efficiency to the grid's front door.

A Digital Compass for a Congested Grid

European smart grid software provider envelio, which established its North American headquarters in Boston in 2024, has launched a new application aimed directly at this interconnection logjam. The company’s “Grid Connection Navigator” (GCN), an extension of its Intelligent Grid Platform (IGP), is designed to function as a sophisticated, publicly accessible guide to the power grid.

In essence, the platform provides project developers—from large-scale solar farms to commercial EV charging depots—with a detailed, interactive map of the distribution grid. Before ever submitting a formal application, a developer can use the tool to evaluate available grid capacity at specific locations, identify the most feasible connection points, and receive an automated estimate of connection costs. This transforms a process of speculative inquiry into one of strategic planning.

For utilities, the benefits lie in efficiency. Instead of dedicating significant engineering resources to manually review a flood of applications, many of which are incomplete or for non-viable locations, they receive more qualified, well-researched requests. This frees up critical personnel to focus on processing feasible projects, accelerating their path to operation. The first worldwide rollout is already underway with a major U.S. utility, New England's Eversource Energy, providing a crucial test case for the North American market.

“Hosting capacity maps are the right tool — but a new approach is needed to keep pace with today’s multiple challenges like load growth and flexibility to name a few,” says Luigi Montana, CEO of envelio Inc. “With the Grid Connection Navigator, we’re taking that next step. Instead of a static map, we provide an interactive, data-driven view of the grid powered by a true load-flow–based algorithm without approximations or heuristics.”

Beyond Static Maps: The Power of Real-Time Data

The key innovation behind the Grid Connection Navigator lies in its dynamic approach to data. For years, utilities have used “hosting capacity maps” to show where the grid might accommodate new generation. However, these maps are often static, updated annually or even less frequently, and based on conservative, worst-case assumptions. This provides a blurry, outdated snapshot that can mislead developers and unnecessarily restrict connections.

envelio's platform moves beyond this paradigm by leveraging a “digital twin” of the grid—a virtual model that is continuously updated with near-real-time data. Its calculations are not based on simple estimates but on sophisticated power-flow analyses that simulate the complex physics of electricity moving through the network. This allows for a much more accurate assessment of how a new project will impact local grid conditions like voltage and thermal limits.

Furthermore, the tool incorporates seasonal and time-series data, revealing how grid capacity fluctuates throughout the day and across the year. This granularity is essential for the modern energy landscape. For a solar project, it can show that while midday capacity is limited, the grid may have ample room to absorb power in the morning. For a battery storage project, it can identify the precise times when charging and discharging would be most beneficial to the grid, unlocking new revenue streams and enhancing grid stability. This level of intelligence is what makes “smart siting” of renewable assets and flexible loads a practical reality.

A Continental Challenge with Canadian Implications

While the initial launch and a massive documented backlog are in the United States, the interconnection crisis is a continental one. Canada's own ambitious climate targets, including a net-zero grid by 2035 and stringent EV sales mandates, depend entirely on the ability to rapidly build and connect vast amounts of new clean energy and charging infrastructure.

Canadian utilities face the same pressures as their American counterparts: aging infrastructure, a surge in connection requests, and the challenge of integrating variable renewable resources without compromising reliability. Federal initiatives like the $100 million Smart Grid Program are designed to support the modernization required, but funding alone is not enough. The processes for planning and managing the grid must also evolve.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) has repeatedly warned that the pace of electrification and data center growth is outstripping the development of new generation and transmission. Tools that can streamline the interconnection of reliable, distributed resources are no longer a luxury but a necessity for maintaining a stable energy supply.

The deployment of the Grid Connection Navigator at a major utility like Eversource will be watched closely across the industry, including in Canada. If the platform proves successful in reducing study times and clearing project backlogs, it could provide a powerful model for Canadian utilities seeking to manage their own growing queues and facilitate a faster, more orderly energy transition.

By giving developers clear, upfront information, these digital platforms can help direct investment toward locations where it can be most effective, preventing the costly delays and cancellations that currently plague the sector. This shift from an adversarial and opaque process to a transparent, data-driven collaboration between developers and utilities is a critical component of effective 21st-century industrial policy, ensuring that public and private capital is deployed efficiently to meet shared climate and economic goals.