Tech Crunch: Why investors are going gaga for solid-state transformers
It’s no secret that the electrical grid is aging, but one part stands out from the rest. Transformers haven’t changed much since Thomas Edison made his first light bulb.
Now, a string of startups are working to modernize the transformer, replacing it with modern power electronics that promise to give grid operators more control over how and where electricity flows.
“It becomes a very powerful device, equivalent to your internet router,” Subhashish Bhattacharya, co-founder and CTO of DG Matrix, told TechCrunch.
Three startups recently raised sizable rounds to scale up production of their solid-state transformer technologies. This week, DG Matrix raised a $60 million Series A and Heron Power raised $140 million in a Series B round. In November, Amperesand raised $80 million to chase after the burgeoning data center market.
Existing transformers are reliable and efficient, but that’s about it. They’re relatively crude instruments, made largely of copper and iron. They react passively to changes on the grid and are capable of tackling only one task per device.
“An old-school steel, copper, and oil transformer doesn’t have any monitoring, doesn’t have any control,” Drew Baglino, founder and CEO of Heron Power, told TechCrunch. In instances where electricity surges or a power plant trips offline, that can be a liability.
The devices can incorporate power from a range of difference sources — including traditional power plants, renewables, and batteries — and transform that electricity into either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) at a number of different voltages, allowing them to replace several devices.
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