Distributed Energy Storage, Efficiency, and Demand Response

Unlocking the potential of customer-sited resources to improve the energy system.

Tapping into the potential of millions of behind-the-meter, customer-sited energy resources—such as battery storage, electric vehicles, and flexible loads— is essential to accelerate the shift away from an electric grid designed around large, centralized, fossil-fuel power plants and toward a flexible, decentralized energy system powered primarily by clean and renewable resources.

Clean Energy Group provides analytical support, informational resources, and policy and regulatory guidance to advance the development and implementation of programs and market mechanisms, facilitating the participation of customer resources in the energy system. Aggregating distributed energy resources into virtual power plants will make the electric grid more resilient and efficient, lower energy burdens for customers, reduce reliance on fossil-fuel generation, and enable more equitable deployment of clean energy technologies.

Sonnen battery storage system at the McKnight Lane Redevelopment Project in Waltham, VT. Photo by Clean Energy Group.

President and Co-Founder of New Partners Community Solar, Herb Stevens demonstrates how the Simpliphi batteries work with the rooftop solar array in a grid emergency. Photo Credit: Pepco

Who We Serve

Clean Energy Group assists and collaborates with a wide range of stakeholders working toward a cleaner, more distributed and flexible energy system, from community advocates and nonprofits to state energy agencies and utility regulators. The goal of the work is to assist with the implementation of customer programs and market mechanisms that will enable a greater diversity of organizations and community members to install and own distributed clean energy technologies and participate in the energy system. The project focuses on communities that are most burdened by high energy costs and harmful emissions from the existing power system and that historically have been excluded from energy decision-making processes.

Project Impact

Advocated and sourced funding for a 14-unit rural, low-income energy storage pilot project in Vermont, which served as a template for Green Mountain Power’s nation-leading customer battery programs (more than 2,000 Vermont residential customers now have resilient battery systems that contribute to lowering energy costs for all ratepayers).

Provided independent analysis and advocacy to support the development and implementation of ConnectedSolutions in Massachusetts, the first state program to incorporate battery storage into the state’s energy efficiency plan, providing customers with performance payments in exchange for battery-provided grid services.

Provided technical assistance and advocacy to support the development and incorporation of equity measures into the Connecticut Energy Storage Solutions program, a 9-year, 580 MW customer battery storage program combining performance payments with rebates, equity adders and on-bill financing.

Project Partners