Retail Market Veteran Launches New Energy Data-Focused Broker

The Maryland PSC recently granted Zap Utility, LLC an electric broker/aggregator license to serve all customer classes in all service areas

Zap Utility is a start-up owned and led by Robert Pinkard.

Pinkard most recently served as a consultant at 5 Energy.

Previously, Pinkard served as an energy analyst at Juice Energy, Inc.

Pinkard has also served as an energy analyst and Vice President at RBC (the Royal Bank of Canada), following macro trends in the energy market and advising clients on energy investments.

Alex Thornton serves as Chief Technology Officer at Zap Utility. Previously, he was the Vice President of Engineering at Locus Energy, a solar data monitoring and analytics company.

Zap Utility states in its application that it was formed, "with the idea that residential and small business customers should have access to the same energy options as large businesses and institutions."

"With customer authorization, Zap's software pulls in usage data from local utilities, analyzes it, and connects customers to a custom strategy based on their preferences, geographic location, housing type, and interest in green energy. By allowing Zap to access utility interval data, customers can see quotes and products based off their actual usage rather than just kWh rates," the company said in its application

Zap is planning on Maryland and Washington D.C. being its first markets and eventually will expand its services, which will include broader energy data analytics apart from just brokering supply, to all 50 states.