Hyperscalers and data center developers are in a pickle: They all want to add computing power tomorrow, but utilities frequently play hard to get, citing years-long waits for grid connections.

“All the AI data centers are struggling to get connected,” Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of Gridcare, told TechCrunch. “They’re so desperate. They are looking for solutions, which may or may not happen. Certainly not in the five-year timelines they cite.”

That has led many data centers to pursue what’s called “behind the meter” power sources — basically, they build their own power plants, a costly endeavor that hints at just how desperate they are for electricity.

But Narayan knew there was plenty of slack in the system, even if utilities themselves haven’t discovered it yet. He has studied the grid for the last 15 years, first as a Stanford researcher then as a founder of another company. “How do we create more capacity when everyone thinks that there is no capacity on the grid?” he said.

Narayan said that Gridcare, which has been operating in stealth, has already discovered several places where extra capacity exists, and it’s ready to play matchmaker between data centers and utilities.

Gridcare recently closed an oversubscribed $13.5 million seed round, the company told TechCrunch. The round was led by Xora, Temasek’s deep tech venture firm, with participation from Acclimate Ventures, Aina Climate AI Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Clearvision, Clocktower Ventures, Overture Ventures, Sherpalo Ventures, and WovenEarth.

For Narayan and his colleagues at Gridcare, the first step to finding untapped capacity was to map the existing grid. Then the company used generative AI to help forecast what changes might be implemented in the coming years. It also layers on other details, including the availability of fiber optic connections, natural gas, water, extreme weather, permitting, and community sentiment around data center construction and expansion. 

“There are 200,000-plus scenarios that you have to consider every time you’re running this study,” Narayan said.

To make sure it’s not running afoul of regulations, Gridcare then takes that data and weighs it against federal guidelines that dictate grid usage. Once it finds a spot, it starts talking with the relevant utility to verify the data.

“We’ll find out where the maximum bang for the buck is,” Narayan said.

At the same time, Gridcare works with hyperscalers and data center developers to identify where they are looking to expand operations or build new ones. “They have already told us what they’re willing to do. We know the parameters under which they can operate,” he said.

That’s when the matchmaking begins.

Gridcare sells its services to data center developers, charging them a fee based on how many megawatts of capacity the startup can unlock for them. “That fee is significant for us, but it’s negligible for data centers,” Narayan said.

For some data centers, the price of admission might be forgoing grid power for a few hours here and there, relying on on-site backup power instead. For others, the path might be clearer if their demand helps green-light a new grid-scale battery installation nearby. In the future, the winner might be the developer that is willing to pay more. Utilities have already approached Gridcare inquiring about auctioning access to newfound capacity.

Regardless of how it happens, Narayan thinks that Gridcare can unlock more than 100 gigawatts of capacity using its approach. “We don’t have to solve nuclear fusion to do this,” he said.

Update: Corrected spare capacity on the grid to gigawatts from megawatts.