Consumers Energy Collaborates With Sunverge for a Distributed Battery Storage Pilot

Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, and Sunverge, the provider of an industry-leading Distributed Energy Resource (DER) control and aggregation platform, today announced their collaboration to leverage Sunverge’s real-time control, aggregation and orchestration platform with Sunverge Energy Storage technology 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 from 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% 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.

About Sunverge Energy

Sunverge Energy provides the leading open dynamic platform for Virtual Power Plants (VPP), a grid-aware and dynamic power source built from the aggregation of behind-the-meter DERs (distributed energy resources). The Sunverge VPP platform is unique in providing dynamic co-optimization of services on both sides of the meter, helping customers with intelligent management of their own renewable energy generation and utilities with greater flexibility in managing their infrastructure investments, reducing generation costs, increasing system reliability, and meeting their renewable energy goals. Together with the Sunverge Infinity edge controller, the Sunverge VPP platform provides intelligent dynamic near real-time control over decentralized energy resources that is efficient, reliable, and responsive to utilities and their customers. For more information please visit http://www.sunverge.com/

About Consumers Energy

Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and electricity to 6.7 million of the state’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191023005216/en/