Breaking grid bottlenecks — and building the future of interconnection.

Before founding Nira, CEO Chris Ariante and Head of Transmission Andrew Martin worked at a transmission optimization firm that partnered directly with ISOs to uncover over $1 billion in potential savings on planned network upgrades.

What they saw was clear:

Projects were stuck waiting for studies. Developers lacked access to timely, ISO-aligned data. Transmission planners were navigating fragmented tools and legacy processes. And pressure on the grid — from clean energy goals, electrification, and large loads — was only accelerating.

Interconnection wasn’t just a volume problem.

It was a transparency problem.

“Historically, interconnection has been a black box. Developers would spend tens of thousands on one-off studies just to find out upgrade costs made the site unviable. For transmission planners, they were stuck manually running the same models with no way to scale. We saw an opportunity to automate those processes and bring transparency to decisions on both sides.” - Chris Ariante

And once developers entered the queue? They entered a race to run models and scenarios before decision points, often times paying millions in deposits for projects that would ultimately withdraw.

“It became the norm to spend weeks running studies by hand, knowing the models existed — but without access or automation to scale insights. We knew that if we could replicate ISO-aligned methodology in software, we could give transmission planners the ability to simulate hundreds of accurate scenarios and plan with confidence.” - Andrew Martin

So they teamed up with CTO Andy Chen to found Nira — building a platform to bring clarity, speed, and accuracy to one of the most critical (and overlooked) pieces of the energy transition.

The Team Behind the Platform

From the beginning, Nira’s software was built by experts from across the interconnection ecosystem:

“We have an incredible team, and it’s what sets our product apart. Every region in Nira’s platform is built by a Transmission Planning Engineer with direct ISO experience — paired with a software engineer to drive automation and data quality. It’s that blend of real-world grid expertise and high-performance software execution that powers both our accuracy and our user experience.” - Andy

That team now includes:

• 9 Transmission Planning Engineers, with direct experience modeling and studying upgrades across every major ISO

• 5 Interconnection professionals from utilities, developers, ISOs, and consultants — people who’ve lived the queue process end-to-end

• 9 Software Engineers from top-tier tech companies like Palantir, Google, and Brex — bringing expertise in building tools for critical infrastructure

  
  

What Nira has Achieved in Four Years

In just four years, Nira has grown from an idea into a grid-aligned platform delivering real results for the clean energy industry.

• 📈 Profitable since day one, with a business model focused on long-term value and technical depth

• ✅ Trusted by over 100 of the top clean energy developers across the U.S.

• 💰 Identified over $3 billion in avoidable upgrade costs — helping customers avoid high-risk upgrades and make smarter interconnection decisions

• ⚡ Serving both generation and large load developers, including utility-scale renewables and hyperscale data centers

• 🌐 Nationwide ISO coverage — including PJM, MISO, CAISO, ERCOT, SPP, NYISO, and ISO-NE

  
  

What's Next: From Platform to Partnership

As we scale, our focus is expanding — not just on what the platform does, but on who it serves and what it enables across the grid.

We’re entering a new chapter at Nira, one where our tools not only support developers, but help utilities and ISOs build faster, more responsive interconnection and transmission planning processes. That means:

• Building tools for ISOs and utilities to increase the efficiency of transmission planning teams — not only in the interconnection process, but also in broader studies like system planning, portfolio evaluation, and long-term scenario analysis

• Expanding the product suite to serve the full interconnection ecosystem, from siting and study to portfolio management and system planning

In support of this next phase, we’ve partnered with Energize Capital, a firm that shares our belief that better data, better tools, and better processes are essential to a scalable energy transition.

“Nira is bringing clarity to one of the most critical friction points in clean energy development — and enabling faster, smarter project decisions at every stage.”

— Tyler Lancaster, Energize Capital

We’re just getting started — and the next phase is all about unlocking more value for the people building the grid of the future.

A New Voice in the Grid Conversation

This newsletter marks our first official step into sharing what we’re seeing across the interconnection landscape — from FERC decisions and ISO reforms to real-world bottlenecks our customers are navigating every day. It’s powered by the experts on our team and built for others who are shaping the grid’s future.

In upcoming issues, we’ll feature:

• 🔎 Monthly insights from our Transmission Planning Engineers — what's changing inside the models and why it matters

• 🗺️ Market-by-market takeaways — siting signals, queue shifts, and ISO-specific updates developers and planners can act on

• 🧠 Customer-proven strategies — how leading developers are reducing risk, accelerating timelines, and scaling portfolios with Nira

  
  

Thanks for being part of this journey

If you're working to scale clean energy or meet rising demand from large loads, we built this for you.

We hope you’ll follow along as we share what we’re learning, building, and enabling — together.