November 7
Uplight Reports Record Load Shift Delivered Over the Summer
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
Clean energy technology company Uplight delivered 4.4 GW of load shift through demand response and virtual power plant (VPP) programs this summer. Uplight unlocks grid capacity by activating customers and their connected devices to generate, shift and save energy. This record seasonal shift represents a 32-percent increase in flexible capacity compared to the same period for 2024.
Salt River Project crews returned to remote areas of the Navajo Nation to provide reliable electricity to 12 families in the Dilkon and Tuba City areas. This effort was part of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority's (NTUA) Mutual Aid Training 2025 program, an arm of the Light Up Navajo (LUN) initiative. This fall, SRP crews spent a total of 3,302 hours connecting 12 homes to electricity.
The average small-to-medium business (SMB) uses 11 times more electricity than an average household – yet these notoriously hard-to-reach customers remain largely disengaged from energy efficiency and demand-side programs. Uplight’s latest UX research explored the perspectives of 42 SMBs across 12 industries and 26 U.S. states.
Xcel Energy asked Minnesota regulators for permission to double the battery storage capacity at a location adjacent to its coal-fired Sherco power plant, which is slated to retire at the end of 2030. The Minnesota PUC has already approved 300 MW to be installed at Sherco. Xcel’s proposal would increase that capacity to 600 MW, making it the largest battery storage site in the upper Midwest.
Get Your Weekly Edition
Industry News
Batteries have quickly become a crucial part of the U.S. electricity grid – and a whole lot more are about to come online. Over the next five years, the country will build nearly 67 gigawatts’ worth of new utility-scale batteries, per data from research firm BloombergNEF, enough to send almost 284 gigawatt-hours of stored-up electricity back to the grid.
As it has long telegraphed, home energy startup Sense is finally exiting the direct-to-consumer hardware market, and transitioning fully to a utility-driven, software-only model. Starting in January, the company will no longer sell its physical home energy monitor. Instead, the company is going all in on embedding Sense software – which takes millions of measurements per second – into smart meters.
Together with United Way of the Midlands, Nebraska’s Omaha Public Power District announced the latest recipients of Greener Together grant funding, with a total of $225,000 awarded to three separate community projects. Greener Together gives OPPD customers the opportunity to make monthly tax-deductible donations on their monthly bills and now they have the option of making a one-time donation as well.
A first-of-a-kind project underway outside Portland, Oregon could provide a model for data centers to connect to the grid without driving up utility bills and carbon emissions. Silicon Valley startup Gridcare launched in May with a promise that its artificial intelligence-powered software can help actualize one of the hottest concepts in the electricity sector: data center flexibility.
