BlueTech Valley Gives PowWow Energy a Boost

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

The BlueTech Valley Central Valley Regional Innovation Cluster represents an expansion and interconnection of multiple incubators and/or entrepreneurship programs with services located at each of seven designated BlueTechValley Cluster hubs—collectively serving 39 counties, covering two-thirds of California’s geographic area.

Olivier Jerphagnon with PowWow Energy is part of the community at Fresno State. “We connected with the BlueTechValley community through the water energy technology incubator,” he said. “We came here three years ago and found a great place where we could take the time to meet growers, listen to their needs. At the same time, we benefit from the fact that people trust Fresno State in the economic community,” said Jerphagnon.

A big part of PowWow Energy is pump monitoring. “Our motto is, ‘Answers to farmers. Not more data.‘ We take existing data and work with agencies on large data sets,” said Jerphagnon. “For example, we have access to all the PG&E and Southern California Edison metering information from the pumps. We have weather data for every acre of California. We have historical aero-images for every foot of farmland.”

“We crunch all the data, and we’re able to create a couple of beneficial products,” noted Jerphagnon. “The first one is a simple compliance product. If you have to report your water usage, you can do that without investing a lot in hardware, because that metering infrastructure is already there for the electrical industry, so why not reuse it?”

“The second product is to identify where there could be more productivity. If one field historically has had issues, we locate it and try to diagnose what’s wrong so the farmer can make adjustments to his operational practices,” Jerphagnon asked. “I think we can find the right answers,” he said.

For more information and testimonials from growers, go to PowWowEnergy.com.