The Obama Administration announced June 17 a number of initiatives to accelerate the transition of the country to a smart, more energy efficient, 21st century grid.

The White House is set to host what it calls a “Summit on Scaling Renewable Energy and Storage with Smart Markets.” The aim of this summit is to bring together regulators, power companies, municipalities, and energy developers that are leading efforts to promote smart electricity markets and greater grid integration of renewable energy and flexible resources such as energy storage, according to the White House.

Based on this, the White House is proposing a number of new executive actions and 33 state and private sector commitments are proposed to accelerate the grid integration of renewable and storage, and also “result in at least 1.3 gigawatts of additional storage procurement or deployment in the next five years.”

The actions include the following:

  • A new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers on the technical and economic considerations and opportunities relating to the grid integration of renewable energy resources.
  • The federal government committing to increasing its storage and microgrid capacity through programs that will make our federal and military bases more resilient and provide funding for microgrids in rural communities.
  • The U.S. Department of Energy promoting access to and standardization of energy data.
  • Sixteen developers and power companies in at least eight states announcing new storage procurement and deployment targets for the next five years.
  • Investors announcing $130 million in new funding commitments for energy storage.
  • In aggregate, these new procurement, deployment, and investment commitments announced today could lead to approximately $1 billion in investments in energy storage.
  • Power companies and developers committing to deploy smart water heaters, smart meters, and demand response programs.

Power companies committed to using smart meters, water heaters, and demand response programs. A number of leading grid operators announced new projects and energy portfolio targets for various states. Grid operators involved in this initiative include:

  • California Independent System Operator (CAISO)
  • California Public Utilities Commission
  • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  • Community Storage Initiative (CSI)
  • Con Edison
  • Duke Energy
  • Green Button Alliance
  • Green Mountain Power (GMP)
  • Indianapolis Power & Light Company (IPL)
  • Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)
  • NextEra Energy’s Florida Power & Light (FPL)
  • Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
  • Portland General Electric (PGE)
  • San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)
  • Southern California Edison (SCE)

For specifics on their pledges, see here.

Developer, Manufacturer, and Investor Announcements

17 leading developers, companies, manufacturers and investors also announced new pilot projects, storage and smart meter deployment targets and investment commitments. They include the following:

  • Aclara
  • Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS
  • DBL Partners
  • Energy Impact Partners LP (EIP)
  • EnerNOC
  • Hannon Armstrong
  • Ice Energy
  • Invenergy
  • IPKeys
  • Microsoft and Primus Power
  • Opower
  • RES Americas
  • sonnen, Inc.
  • Stem
  • Sunrun
  • UniEnergy Technologies (UET)
  • Vaughn Thermal Corporation

For specifics, see here.

The Administration also stated it will be making military bases more efficient, providing funding for microgrids in rural areas, and standardizing to more transparent energy data.