Consumers Energy in Jackson and San Francisco, Calif.’s Sunverge, a provider of control programs for energy distribution, are starting a pilot program in the Grand Rapids area to see if battery storage could benefit the overall electrical grid.
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 from behind-the-meter battery storage. Consumers Energy used this analysis to select a circuit in the Grand Rapids area to conduct the 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,” says 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.”
Martin Milani, CEO of Sunverge, says, “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.”
Consumers Energy says it 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.
