JACKSON—Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, announced a collaboration with Sunverge, a San Francisco, Calif.-based provider of rooftop solar and home energy management systems, for a Consumers Energy residential battery storage pilot.
“We are conducting this pilot to test and measure how aggregated battery storage may have the potential to offer benefits to Michigan’s electric grid and our customers,” said Ryan Kiley, executive director of product development for Consumers Energy. “The Sunverge platform’s ability to co-optimize grid services is key to our decision to work with them. In this pilot, we are testing to understand the different values that batteries could provide to the overall grid, such as potential investment deferral, resiliency and reliability, while also providing backup of critical loads for pilot participants.”
Sunverge worked with Consumers Energy to evaluate the energy provider’s distribution circuits and identify grid locations suitable to test the potential benefits and value of behind-the-meter battery storage. Consumers Energy used this analysis to select a circuit in Michigan’s Grand Rapids area to conduct the pilot.
“We are excited to be working with the Consumers Energy team to help them better understand how they may be able to leverage aggregated and orchestrated behind-the-meter storage to provide an overall grid benefit and support their goal of generating 40 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2040,” said Martin Milani, CEO of Sunverge.
Consumers Energy is working to modernize Michigan’s electric grid and develop clean energy across the state. In January, the company dedicated its first combined rooftop solar array and battery storage system in the Circuit West energy district of Grand Rapids. Last September, the company began operation of the Parkview Battery Project, a 1 MW battery located at Western Michigan University.
This story was published by Technology Century.
