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Nera Energy says software automation can sharply cut transmission planning workload
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Summary
Andrew Martin of Nera Energy described software to automate data pipelines and interconnection studies, saying the tools reduce manual work for planners and can cut study times dramatically while leaving planners in control of solver outputs.
Andrew Martin, co-founder and head of transmission planning at Nera Energy, presented the company's approach to automating transmission planning data pipelines and interconnection studies with software that wraps established simulation engines.
Martin argued the bottleneck for many planning teams is data engineering rather than solver performance. "A way you can think about data engineering is really in terms of data pipelines... those data pipelines are human-operated," he said, noting planners spend a large share of time on repetitive data tasks. He said Nera's tools aim to automate those pipelines while keeping planners in the driver's seat with full visibility and off-ramps to inspect solver inputs and outputs.
Martin described two product lines: a prospecting product that helps developers identify higher-likelihood points of interconnection before they join an ISO queue, and in-queue tools that refine analysis as projects move through the interconnection process. He said developers using the tools have seen substantial internal time and cost savings; he stated developers have "cut study times down by roughly 90%" in some use cases and said typical developer clients see more than 50% time-and-cost savings across processes.
He also said Nera supports many regions and has processed data for hundreds of developers, claiming the company has supported more than 500 GW of interconnection requests. Martin emphasized that the software leverages existing, battle-tested simulation engines rather than replacing them and that the team focuses on process and data automation around those solvers.
On scope and limitations, Martin said Nera's current focus is steady-state thermal and contingency studies, with plans to expand into system-strength or stability analysis if customers require it. In audience questions, he discussed differences between commonly used solvers and said that some solver-to-solver differences reflect iteration order and solution ordering rather than fundamental physics.
Martin urged planners to retain inspectability of automated results and avoid black-box automation; Nera's approach is to provide visibility and an off-ramp for manual checks.
He invited attendees to follow up with the Nera team to discuss region-specific modeling and integration with ISO processes.
