Latimer Controls

Latimer Controls develops machine-learning-driven control and telemetry software for utility-scale photovoltaic plants. Its flagship product, the Latimer Flexible Solar Management System (FSMS), calculates high sustainable limit (HSL), potential high limit (PHL) and real-time potential power (RTPP) values, estimating the available power at each inverter in real time. The company states the estimates remain accurate during curtailment, intermittent cloud shading and low-irradiance shoulder periods, and that the software runs on existing SCADA and plant control infrastructure without additional hardware.

For developers and independent power producers, the software is positioned around HSL/RTPP telemetry accuracy, which the company describes as a compliance requirement in high-PV-growth regions such as ERCOT and Georgia Power territory, and around analytics use cases including quantifying curtailed energy for financial reporting and settlement validation and back-validating generation forecasts. For utilities and grid operators, the company targets integration of PV assets with automatic generation control for frequency regulation, provision of synchronous reserves from solar headroom in the context of PJM's 2026 reserve obligations, and reduced reliance on fossil-fuel peaking plants. A public demonstration using data from a partially cloudy day at a Texas PV site compares Latimer HSL against a legacy HSL method and measured AC power.

Founding story

The company is named after inventor Lewis Latimer, whose carbon filament contributed to the commercialization of the incandescent lightbulb. It grew out of graduate research conducted from 2019 to 2022 at CU Boulder and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. CU Boulder's Venture Partners states the company was founded in 2022 by Simon Julien (Applied Mathematics, '22) and Zachary Jacobs (Chemical and Biological Engineering, '21) to commercialize a solar energy control system addressing intermittent renewable power; the technology was co-invented by Julien with Bri-Mathias Hodge, Amirhossein Sajadi and NREL. Other listings give a 2021 founding date.

Business model

Latimer Controls licenses software to utility-scale solar plant owners, developers, independent power producers, utilities and grid operators. The product integrates with existing SCADA and plant control systems without requiring new hardware, and aVenture characterizes the company's revenue as recurring software sold to enterprise customers.

Software sold to enterprise customers, classified as recurring revenue.

Traction

The company describes FSMS as field-proven and available for deployment across the United States, cites a real-plant demonstration at a Texas PV site, and reports a customers and partners list. It signed its first pilot with Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative and won the DOE American-Made Solar Prize. aVenture records 4 employees as of February 2024.