September 18
Utilities, Schools See Growing Value in Electric Buses for VPPs
This week's top smart energy news, curated by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC).
Member News
In the summers of 2021 and 2022, a single electric school bus discharged about 10.8 MWh of electricity into the suburban Boston electric distribution grid to offset load peaks. National Grid’s ConnectedSolutions virtual power plant program paid nearly $12,000 per season for its efforts. The Beverly Public Schools pilot showed that bidirectional-capable electric school buses can provide real value to local grids.
The Georgia PSC recently approved seven solar power purchase agreements totaling 1,137 MW for Georgia Power, expanding the utility’s renewable energy portfolio and marking the largest single solar procurement in the company’s history. The projects were selected through Georgia Power’s CARES 2023 and CARES 2025 competitive RFP programs and are expected to begin commercial operation as early as 2029.
Arizona public power utility Salt River Project has invested $3 million in 34 research and development projects with Arizona’s three largest public universities – Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona – as part of an ongoing effort to support reliable power and water delivery to SRP customers. Every project awarded funding by SRP was assessed for alignment with SRP’s strategic objectives and company goals.
As data centers, factories and electrification push growth to unprecedented heights, customers are looking for greater control over their energy use. But the traditional one-size-fits-all approach falls short for customers wanting to know which energy choices will benefit them most, and how those choices will impact their bills. In this third episode of Bidgely’s four-part series, Stephen Lacey talks with Kirby Brinlee at Oklahoma Gas & Electric and Abhay Gupta at Bidgely.
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Industry News
The 28-MWh Bexar Martinez battery energy storage installation in CPS Energy territory near San Antonio is B2U Storage Solutions’ second Texas “second-life” energy storage project to reach commercial operations. Like its other Texas project and several it has deployed in California, the San Antonio project is built entirely from repurposed EV batteries.
Summer is only just coming to a close, but this year’s top clean energy trendsetter is already clear. At the start of 2026, you may never have even heard of balcony solar. The panels have long been staples in Germany, where residents quite literally hang them off their balconies and plug them into standard wall outlets, cutting their use of power from the grid and their electric bills.
A new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has found that the United States now has enough solar capacity to power more than 50 million homes across the country. The new findings mean that solar energy is cumulatively capable of powering more than one-third of all households nationwide. The findings show that the solar industry added 11.4 GWdc of new electricity generating capacity during this year’s second quarter.
After a year of debate over market reform, electricity costs, and whether gigascale data centers can be reliable demand response participants, it should be no surprise that the cost of grid congestion in the U.S. is enormous. According to a report out this week from Grid Strategies, grid congestion costs exceeded $17 billion in 2025 – a significant jump over 2024’s total of $12 billion.
