AJ Perkins, President Could anyone have foreseen a day when a state’s energy supply would exceed the demand?

Amazingly, surplus energy is a predicament presently ailing the state of California. Earlier this year, California set two renewable energy records: the most solar power ever flowing on the state’s main electric grid, and most solar power ever taken offline because it wasn’t needed. “Utilities need our help to store clean energy. Currently, they lack resources to store excess energy and utilize it when necessary,” says AJ Perkins, president of DR Microgrid, an advanced microgrid integrator that tackles today’s energy challenges in an unprecedented manner.

The reasons for the skewed supply-demand ratio are obvious. With new policies mandating that 60 percent of the state’s electricity comes from carbon-free sources by 2030, California’s utilities are ramping up their efforts to purchase more renewable energy. As a result, the state’s fleet of solar farms and rooftop panels are frequently generating more electricity than Californians use during the middle of the day. To aggravate matters, new renewable energy plants are slated to go online over the next year, allowing California to meet the 2030 deadline a decade ahead of schedule.

Is excess clean energy really a pain point?

It has proven to be. Besides grappling with economic and physical strains on the grid lines and power systems, the state’s lawmakers have been forced to transmit excess power to states such as Arizona, to prevent wastage of energy. In fact, California has paid states just to take its excess power supply. Also, solar and wind farms have had to throttle back on production, an expensive option that does not benefit anyone.

Despite producing all this excess clean energy, California’s utilities—held culpable for the 2018 wildfires—are reeling in the aftermath of the tragedy that killed 86 people and uprooted 14,000 homes. Starting this year, California’s utilities now have the CPUC’s approval to shut off the grid during times of danger fire promoting conditions are present or oncoming. The mandatory shutdowns are already here. In June, PG&E implemented the first public safety power blackout that affected 22,700 consumers (over an entire weekend). While shutting off power during Californian fire seasons is a good initiative that will likely prevent deadly wildfires, businesses are set to suffer the consequences.

Enter DR Microgrid, a company that creates microgrids to protect businesses from rising utility costs and blackouts, and facilitates the mass storage of excess clean energy. Unlike standard microgrids that are both laborious and expensive, DR Microgrid has devised a patent-pending process that enables easier integration of microgrids into existing solar energy systems. While microgrid installations typically take up to a year, DR Microgrid’s plug-and-play technology can be harnessed within three to six months. Perkins elaborates, “We build our microgrids around an oversized power storage system so that energy can be value-stacked for reasons that extend beyond the obvious: peak shavings and battery backup. Our systems have the capacity to supply for human response efforts such as the California wildfires and hurricanes across the country. Also, our clients stand to make specialized incentives by selling energy back to the grid.”

Specialized Incentives for Demand Response

Until now, utilities leveraged Demand Response (DR) programs to incentivize customers—commercial, residential, or industrial—for reducing their electricity consumption during certain hours called “events”.

However, DR Microgrid—working with top Californian utilities such as PG&E and SDG&E—has taken this existing model and flipped it on its head. Rather than asking its customers to curtail or shut off equipment during heavy grid usage times, DR Microgrid acts as an aggregator and deploys large commercial grade batteries and advanced microgrid control systems to meet the energy demands of its customers while also funneling energy back to the grid without upsetting normal building operations.

For example, DR Microgrid recently worked with a manufacturer to perform a full offset demand response. Previously, the manufacturer used to shut off lights, ACs, and equipment in parts of their building to meet their obligation and sometimes opted out of the event when operations suffered.