PingThings and Dominion Energy Virginia have launched a five-year Technology Acceleration Alliance to redefine what utilities should expect from a grid data historian, putting artificial intelligence to work on seven years of full-resolution grid data. Announced in Richmond, Virginia, on October 28, 2026, the alliance expands PingThings’ PredictiveGrid platform across Dominion Energy’s operations and builds on a collaboration that began in 2019. Dominion Energy will serve as a reference utility for the platform, sharing results, methods and lessons with other utilities through case studies, technical publications and industry forums.
A Grid That Remembers
Traditional data historians have served utilities for decades, providing operational monitoring and historical records. But today’s electric grid demands more. Engineers need access to low- and high-resolution data across generation, transmission and distribution to investigate complex events, recognise emerging patterns and develop new analytics, and the old tools were not built for that volume or that variety.
The problem, as PingThings frames it, is that most grid data is downsampled, siloed or lost. High-frequency sensor data arrives faster than most systems can handle, so they downsample it or discard it. PredictiveGrid was built for that data, the company says, and it processes slower operational data, such as SCADA, faster than conventional systems as well. That performance lets Dominion Energy keep every measurement at full resolution, record continuously instead of only when an alarm triggers, and analyse years of data at once. Dominion Energy wanted that performance at the core of its grid data infrastructure.
“Utilities have measured the grid for decades. Most of that data is downsampled, siloed, or lost,” said Sean Murphy, chief executive officer of PingThings. “The grid forgets. With Dominion Energy, we’re building a grid that remembers every event at full resolution. The data archive, over time, becomes one of a utility’s most valuable assets: it’s what engineers investigate with, and it’s what physical AI learns from.”
Seven Years Of Data, And Counting
Dominion Energy and PingThings began working together in 2019. Today, the PingThings platform manages more than 5 petabytes of Dominion Energy sensor data from transmission lines, substations, transformers and other grid equipment, and that volume is expected to more than double in the coming years. Since 2019, PingThings has recorded, in high definition, the transmission system serving “Data Center Alley”, the world’s largest data center market, a record that began years before the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 and cannot be recreated.
Dominion Energy’s experience, the companies say, demonstrates the value of preserving detailed measurements. In seven of nine published investigations, the data revealed a different explanation than initially suspected, helping engineers avoid potentially costly or unnecessary corrective actions. Through the alliance’s industry engagement program, the two companies plan to share additional findings with utilities across the industry.
What The Alliance Actually Does
The alliance seeks to put AI to work on seven years of Dominion Energy’s full-resolution grid data, expand PingThings’ presence in Richmond, and launch a robust industry engagement program. It is not a single software purchase but a five-year working relationship, with Dominion Energy acting as a reference utility: other utilities will be able to see results, methods and lessons learned, rather than taking the platform’s value on trust.
“Our experience has shown that the information needed to understand a grid event isn’t always found in an alarm or a snapshot of what happened,” said Dr. Kevin Jones, director of strategic initiatives for Dominion Energy’s Electric Transmission division. “Sometimes the answer is in measurements collected days, weeks, or even years earlier. Our engineers rely on that every day. This alliance is about what comes next, for Dominion Energy and for the industry.”
PingThings is also establishing a presence in Richmond, with key leadership already relocated there, and the alliance supports joint talent development through rotational programs and fellowships.
“Silicon Valley talks about deep tech while utilities have been doing it for a century, without the fanfare,” Murphy said. “Through this alliance, software and AI talent will work alongside Dominion Energy’s engineers in Richmond. Technology brings new tools. Utility engineers bring a century of experience understanding how the grid actually behaves. Physical AI needs both.”
Why It Matters
This matters because the grid is becoming harder to run just as it becomes more important to get right. Demand is rising, data centers and renewables are changing load patterns, and the cost of misdiagnosing a grid event can be enormous. A grid that remembers every event at full resolution gives engineers a chance to find the true cause instead of the plausible one, and gives AI systems training data that actually reflects how the physical world behaves, much as AI factories are being given a single source of truth and industrial AI is being judged on measurable returns. The caution is that data alone does not fix a grid; it still needs engineers who know what to ask, which is why this alliance pairs software talent with utility experience, and why its value should be measured in investigations that changed a decision, not in petabytes stored.
Background
PingThings builds the foundational data infrastructure for physical AI, and its PredictiveGrid platform ingests, preserves and analyses low- and high-resolution sensor data across generation, transmission and distribution, with utilities as its first market.
Source: PingThings announcement
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