Energy Management System from 0 to 1

Challenge

Sunnova's Adaptive Business faced significant challenges in effectively managing and optimizing its growing portfolio of C&I energy projects. The current landscape, characterized by a multitude of OEM platforms with unique hardware and software, resulted in fragmented data silos and complex system integration. This fragmented data hindered efficient monitoring, control, and maintenance of diverse assets like batteries, charging stations, generators and solar inverters.

Furthermore, the lack of a unified platform limits customer visibility into system performance and hinders the provision of comprehensive and user-friendly performance reports, crucial for customer satisfaction and building trust.

Solution

To position Sunnova as a leader in Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS), I led the end-to-end development of a unified Energy Management System (EMS)—from ideation to launch.

Key initiatives included:

• Defined the product vision and roadmap

• Conducted internal and external stakeholder interviews

• Created Product Requirements and launched MVP

• Led vendor evaluation and market research

• Defined API endpoints and system architecture

• Drove build vs. buy decision-making with business and technical input

Approach

I applied a structured, MVP-first strategy grounded in Daniel Elizalde’s B2B product development framework. The approach focused on:

• De-risking critical integration challenges

• Aligning engineering, operations, and commercial teams

• Rapidly validating customer and internal requirements

• Building a scalable architecture for future DER integration

Product Development Framework for IoT products from Daniel Elizalde's B2B Innovators Map

Impact

• $50M+ annual revenue opportunity

• $1M in cost savings

• 6 months faster time to market vs traditional development cycles