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REV Connect Criteria

What makes a great REV Connect idea?

Your idea submission should help advance New York State’s Climate Act goals and share the value created by addressing an unmet need, offering a superior solution to those currently in use, or enabling utilities to offer a significantly better value to customers. This can be in the form of an innovative business or market model coupled with a product, service, or technology.

The REV Connect team evaluates submissions before bringing qualified ideas to New York’s investor-owned utilities and State energy agencies. While REV Connect offers an initial screen using the criteria below, the decision lies with utilities and submitters on whether to proceed with a partnership, or to first work together to refine a solution’s business case.

For resources to support a better understanding of State and individual utility innovation interests and activities, review the results of our Innovation Assessment, the list of Innovation Opportunities by topic and by utility , and the Utility Profiles.

Minimum Requirements

Your submission must meet certain threshold requirements to be considered for a consultation from a REV Connect team member.

Submissions must:

  • Complete all form fields
  • Provide a valid contact name and email address
  • Indicate interest in partnering with a utility
  • Not be a response to an active procurement (e.g., RFP)
  • Not include sales pitches or marketing materials
  • Not be a request for R&D support
  • Not be a policy position statement

All submissions should receive a response from REV Connect within two weeks. Those that qualify will be invited to a consultation session with a member of the REV Connect facilitation team. If the submission does not meet these minimum requirements, the provided contact will be notified.

Criteria for Facilitation

The REV Connect team will use the following criteria to evaluate and categorize submitted ideas. We will consider both information provided in the online submission form as well as additional information provided if a consultation is held. You should develop your ideas and materials to clearly articulate how your idea aligns with these criteria. While we offer an initial screen using these criteria, the decision to proceed with a partnership lies with utilities and submitters.

 

Criteria Description
Value Proposition and Impact Potential
  • Articulate a clear and compelling value proposition to all relevant stakeholders
  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the target market and provide a supported estimation of market size
  • Identify market impacts and provide a supported estimation of customer savings and State or utility benefits
  • Define the metrics that can be measured or hypotheses that can be tested to support bringing the solution to scale
  • Describe the path for replication and scaling across New York State
Business and Financial Model
  • Define key stakeholders (e.g., utility, customer, submitter), their roles, and value streams (e.g., energy and monetary transactions)
  • Quantify the magnitude of funding needed and describe how the funds would be used
  • Identify a potential source(s) of funding
  • Articulate the key milestones or process steps needed to progress the solution to implementation after a conversation with a utility
Submitter Capability*
  • Demonstrate the team’s experience in developing and delivering similar ideas, projects, or programs with successful outcomes
  • Confirm the company’s and solution’s, ability to follow through and deliver on utility needs
  • Define any complementary roles to be fulfilled by other partners
  • Outline strategies for customer engagement and/or acquisition
Competitive Advantage
  • Articulate how the solution provides a competitive advantage over other solutions in the market
Strategic Alignment
  • Describe how the solution advances progress towards one or more Climate Act targets
  • Articulate how the solution addresses the individual utility’s need(s)

 

*If the submitter is unsure or only offers a part of the capabilities needed to deliver their proposed idea, 
 they should consider partnering with another submitter to support a robust submission.

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