The system for supplying electricity to large enterprises with multi-building campuses is outdated. Unlike homeowners who pay for what they actually use, these campuses purchase a standard monthly capacity. This capacity must, by necessity, be based on their maximum potential usage, even if the company only reaches that peak level rarely, such as during a single busy season.
This was a situation that deeply bothered COI Energy founder and CEO SaLisa Berrien. After earning a degree in mechanical engineering and later an MBA, she spent twenty-five years as an energy engineer at major utility companies like PECO, ConEdison, and Exelon, as well as at several clean energy startups.
Berrien was drawn to this field for personal reasons. As a child, there were times her parents could not pay the electric bill. She recalls being in the dark often, which lowered her self-esteem and led to teasing from other children. When she entered the industry, her friends questioned her choice, calling it a stagnant, white, male-dominated field. For Berrien, it was personal; she knew what it felt like to be that child and wanted to make electricity more efficient, affordable, and available so no child would have to go without.
In her career, she worked on customer operations, smart grids, and clean energy programs. As an engineer, she made recommendations on improving building energy performance and eliminating production line bottlenecks. She learned to use big data to optimize energy efficiency, but she noticed a fundamental problem remained unaddressed: companies were reserving and paying for far more energy than they actually used.
Commercial customers repeatedly asked her why they were being overcharged. She agreed with their frustration, questioning why they could not simply pay on demand for what they used. Berrien’s answer to this problem resulted in three patents and the founding of COI Energy. She assembled a team with expertise in building management, energy engineering, and regulation.
COI’s solution is a marketplace where enterprises within the same utility company can sell portions of their unused energy allotment. The platform uses data to predict when a company will not need its full capacity. COI installs a patented energy gateway at every customer site to measure usage, integrating with the building’s systems and SCADA systems. This hardware-agnostic solution works with any existing utility or building energy system. After collecting data, the platform can predict a company’s true electricity needs for up to ninety days.
An enterprise can then decide how much unused energy to release. COI pays the business for that reserved capacity, and buyers on the marketplace pay COI to obtain it. For example, if a customer provides 100 kilowatts, COI pays them for that amount, and then buyers purchase it from COI.
The startup is currently in its pre-seed stage, having raised 3.5 million dollars from investors including former Talen Energy executive Paul Farr, Morgan Stanley Inclusive and Sustainable Ventures, Kachuwa Impact Fund, Chloe Capital, and through crowdfunding on Republic. COI is already generating revenue with five pilot customers, each with a minimum of fifty buildings. It operates in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York, and has a waitlist. The company is also in talks to become a solution provider for Switzerland as it enacts a national energy policy allowing businesses and homes to share capacity starting in 2026.
Remembering her own childhood struggles, Berrien has dedicated one percent of the savings that businesses earn on the platform to be donated to nonprofit organizations. These organizations help underprivileged families with energy needs, such as paying bills, weatherization, and energy programs like solar. This initiative is called Kilowatt for Good.
Her goal is to offer technology that helps overwhelmed energy systems. Instead of wasting capacity, it is shared. This approach makes the planet better, improves bottom lines, and uplifts communities at the same time.