September 2025 News at DEIC
September 19, 2025
September 2025 News at DEIC: Road trip to Tennessee, Hyperscaled/Accelerate updates and more
DEIC Hyperscaled is the Dominion Energy Innovation Center’s new virtual accelerator program connecting data center-focused energy startups with their next major customer and potential corporate investor. The program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Technology Commercialization’s Energy Program for Innovation Clusters (EPIC) Round 3 (see the announcement).
Over 11 weeks, the DEIC will provide education, mentoring, and connections, helping cohort companies discover pathways to paid pilot projects at Virginia’s leading data center developers and operators.
The program dovetails with our DEIC Accelerate program and offers additional industry-specific support to companies looking to create energy infrastructure solutions for data centers.
Our goal with Hyperscaled is to enable continued data center industry growth by advancing technologies that enhance the productivity and efficiency of data centers and their energy infrastructure.
DEIC Hyperscaled offers innovators around data center infrastructure and support a platform to secure Virginia’s energy future and ensure its continued leadership in data center development. We are looking for seed-stage or later companies with innovative products or services that are ready to pilot at utility scale.
Despite a six-fold increase in workload since 2010, overall data center energy consumption in 2020 had grown just 6% due to efficiency gains, but PUE challenges remain as energy-intensive AI, 5G, crypto, and blockchain create additional demands. Working with power infrastructure, airflow management, HVAC, load flexibility, or other advancements? We’re looking for innovations across the construction and operations supply chain.
The infrastructure delivering power to data centers, including transformers, substations, and other hardware/software solutions is under strain – as of 2020, data centers accounted for nearly 1% of worldwide energy usage. Major new developments blur the line between data center developers and utilities, creating opportunities for products that improve speed to power or power capacity. Are you working on a related idea?
A large data center uses between 1 and 5 million gallons of water each day. Only a small percentage (as little as 25% in some cases) of the water is recycled/reused. Major players have pledged to be “water positive” by 2030. Have an idea to decrease that amount or use water more efficiently?
Data centers traditionally use diesel generators for backup power, as outages are costly (in a 2023 survey, 54% of respondents said their last outage cost $100K+, while 16% said an outage cost $1M+). Do you have an alternative idea for bridge or backup power stacks, such as hydro, geothermal, or batteries?
A recent Meta data center project sited in Richmond cost more than $1B to build, not including chip costs. Do you have ways to lower development costs? Improve data center design and constructions efforts? Develop new equipment that is meant to handle next generation loads?
We are looking for seed-stage or later companies with innovative products or services that are ready to pilot at utility scale.
The application period has closed.
DEIC Hyperscaled runs 11 weeks between September and November each year.
5-6 companies are chosen each year to participate in DEIC Hyperscaled. An additional 3-5 companies will be selected for pre-acceleration mentoring and support.
Throughout the program, companies participate in various workshops and events.
Each company is paired with at least one dedicated corporate mentor who drives internal evangelism during the program and is tasked with helping to build the business case.
Companies should have at least one full-time employee and expect to dedicate 2 – 4 hours per week to the program.
Startups stay fully in control; DEIC does not take an equity position or maintain any IP ownership stake.
As part of the EPIC prize, DEIC will take 5-7 companies that are TRL 5 or lower for “pre-Accelerator” education and mentorship as part of the cohort. The goal of the Pre-Accelerator is to prepare companies for involvement in future Hyperscaled cohorts and/or for future commercialization opportunities.
September 2025 News at DEIC: Road trip to Tennessee, Hyperscaled/Accelerate updates and more
Ashland, VA – The Dominion Energy Innovation Center (“DEIC”) is pleased to announce the six companies selected for DEIC’s Hyperscaled accelerator track, focused on offering energy- and infrastructure-related solutions for data centers.
Ashland, VA – The Dominion Energy Innovation Center (“DEIC”) has announced the seven companies participating in its signature DEIC Accelerate utility deployment accelerator program.