#69: WeaveGrid and Synop Partner

WeaveGrid and Synop target commercial grid load, Federal grant dollars starting to flow again, Monta acquires ABB's Nordic CPMS contracts

Author

Steve Taylor
March 28, 2026

The Business and Policy of Charging Infrastructure

The 3 big stories

  • WeaveGrid and Synop partner to give utilities better visibility into fleet charging

  • Federal grant dollars starting to flow again

  • Monta acquires ABB E-mobility's Nordic charge point management software contracts

Plus, featured jobs and news.

Steve

Denmark didn't get to 80% EV market share by accident. Norlys helped build the infrastructure, the brand, and the customer trust that made it possible. The playbook they wrote is one every utility serious about EV charging should understand. 

Monta is hosting this webinar on April 29th with Philip Aude Skeldrup, Senior Director of eMobility at Norlys

Industry News

Earlier this week, WeaveGrid and Synop announced a partnership to connect Synop's energy and charging management platform with WeaveGrid's DISCO (Distribution-Integrated System Capacity Orchestration) software. The integration gives utilities better visibility into commercial fleet charging and new tools to manage the strain that growing fleet load is putting on the grid.

The Synop deal is the third DISCO expansion partnership WeaveGrid has announced in 2026, following integrations with SolarEdge and FranklinWH earlier this year.

The Synop partnership gives WeaveGrid its first foothold in commercial fleet charging. Synop already manages 800 fleet depots and 10,000 charging assets, and its software can coordinate everything on a charging site, including batteries, solar, and generators, even when the grid goes down. This will allow fleet operators to get easier access to utility programs that lower their energy costs, and utilities get the visibility they need to manage the growing load that commercial fleets are putting on the grid.

Steve's take

WeaveGrid has been building DISCO into a platform that can manage almost any flexible load on the grid. I believe this partnership is the most important step they’ve taken. Until now, WeaveGrid's utility relationships have been built largely around residential EV charging. Commercial fleet load is larger, more predictable, and growing faster.

The gap this partnership fills is visibility. Utilities have not had good data on how commercial fleets are loading their grid. Synop has this data and WeaveGrid knows what to do with that data. WeaveGrid has relationships with the utilities. Synop has the commercial customers. If the two can execute together, utilities have good reason to engage. The commercial EV fleet energy management market is estimated to reach $15B by 2030 and both companies are now better positioned to compete for it.

Power and Policy

Federal Grant Dollars Are Flowing Again, and DOE is an Early Mover

After a prolonged period of uncertainty, agency “DOGE-ing” and outright cancellation of many federal awards in 2025, there are clear signs that federal discretionary grant funding is beginning to move again in 2026—with the U.S. Department of Energy emerging as one of the earliest and most active agencies reopening the spigot.

The past year saw significant disruption across the federal grant landscape. Billions of dollars in previously awarded clean energy and infrastructure funding were paused or rescinded, creating hesitation among applicants, investors, and project developers. That pause is now giving way to a more defined, and in many cases accelerated, funding environment.

What’s notable is not just that funding is returning, but how it is returning:

  • Larger, more targeted funding opportunities

  • Compressed application timelines

  • A focus on deployment, resilience, and strategic technologies

In short, the federal government is shifting from broad programmatic rollout to high-impact, execution-oriented funding rounds.  Recent announcements from DOE provide a clear window into this shift. DOE’s newly announced SPARK program represents one of the most significant funding releases to date in 2026:

  • Total funding: ~$1.9B

  • Focus areas: Grid resilience, smart grid, transmission upgrades

  • Award sizes: $10M to $250M per project

  • Eligible applicants: Utilities, developers, states, tribes, and private sector entities

This program is explicitly designed to accelerate deployment of grid infrastructure, prioritizing speed and scalability over long research cycles. Equally important: DOE has set compressed timelines (concept papers due within weeks), signaling urgency and a desire to move funds into the field quickly.

In parallel, DOE is advancing next-generation innovation through a major funding opportunity tied to the Genesis Mission:

  • Total funding: ~$293M

  • Scope: AI-driven solutions across 20+ national challenges

  • Phase I awards: $500k–$750k

  • Phase II awards: Up to $15M

The program is structured to seed early-stage ideas while creating a pipeline to larger-scale awards, bridging the gap between research and deployment. This reflects a broader federal trend: pairing innovation funding with clear pathways to commercialization.

Rob’s take

The reopening of federal funding, particularly through DOE, has several important implications.  Unlike prior years, many 2026 opportunities are operating on compressed timelines, requiring pre-developed partnerships, mature project concepts, and rapid proposal mobilization. Organizations that waited out the 2025 uncertainty now face a “move quickly or miss the cycle” environment.

Programs like SPARK highlight a clear pivot to less emphasis on purely exploratory R&D, and a greater focus on system deployment.  Award sizes are increasing significantly (often $10M+), suggesting there will be higher barriers to entry with a focus on consortium-based applications that have scalable potential.

DOE’s return to active funding is a strong indicator that other agencies (DOT, EPA, Commerce) may follow with similar releases in the coming weeks and months.

Emerging Tech

Copenhagen-based Monta announced on March 26 the acquisition of the charge software contracts operated by Vourity, ABB E-mobility's Nordic subsidiary. This is not an acquisition of ABB E-mobility or Vourity, but a transfer of CPMS software customer contracts. ABB E-mobility identified Monta as the strongest CPMS solution in the Nordics and the right platform to ensure continuity of service.

Monta and ABB have already been working together on charging infrastructure, including at Copenhagen Airport, where ABB supplied the hardware and Monta runs the software layer. 

Monta now supervises more than 260,000 commercial charge points, supports over 800 hardware models, and gives operators access to a roaming network of over 1.3 million public chargers across Europe and the U.S. The company is also pushing AI-powered capabilities through Monta AI, designed to help operators diagnose faults faster and manage networks more efficiently.

Steve's take

A pattern is forming in the European charging software market. Hardware companies are stepping back from software competition and handing their customers to dedicated platform players, like Monta. ABB isn’t leaving the EV charging business; only the part that requires constant software investment and deep customer support to stay relevant.

I expect we’ll see this same dynamic in North America in the next two years.

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⚡️Steve and Rob

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