Webinar Recap: Scaling battery storage from pilot to program
Batteries have proven their value for demand response. Now the challenge is turning pilots into scalable programs utilities can plan around. In Episode 4 of the Flexible Grid Technologies Webinar Series, hosted by CLEAResult Energetics, we explored what it takes to make that leap.
Kiran Srivastava, senior director at CLEAResult, moderated the discussion with three panelists:
- Rachel Cohen Moore, senior product developer at Portland General Electric (PGE)
- Lee Wood, program director at CLEAResult Canada
- Rebecca Smith, energy engineer at CLEAResult Energetics
The conversation comes at a critical moment. Extreme heat, aging infrastructure, and new electric load are pushing grids closer to their limits, and utilities are responding by building flexibility into the system.
Topic 1: What's driving the acceleration
Battery storage is growing fast, and the pace varies significantly by market. Policy, customer economics, and falling technology costs all play a role. Batteries stand out because they're highly flexible: a smart thermostat or electric vehicle charger shifts a single end use, while a battery can offset an entire site's load or send power back to the grid.
Wood outlined a four-part formula for adoption. Customers need a reason to buy, incentives need to lower the upfront cost, interconnection needs to be simple, and suppliers need a market stable enough to invest in. When all four line up, adoption takes off.
Wood also urged utilities to count every benefit batteries provide. "The bigger the value stack, the bigger the program you'll be able to justify," Wood said.
By the numbers
- 275.3 gigawatt-hours of battery storage added globally in 2025, a 61% jump over 2024
- About 40% drop in battery cell costs in recent years, driven by the shift to lithium iron phosphate chemistry
- 100,000 participants and 600 megawatts of nameplate capacity in Puerto Rico's battery demand response program
- 95% of new solar installations in Puerto Rico include a battery
Tips for utilities
- Grow the installed base with hardware incentives, net metering, or both.
- Allow export and fast-track interconnection for small solar and storage systems.
- Use location-based incentives and targeted outreach to steer new installs to constrained feeders.
- Count resilience, deferred distribution upgrades, and operational savings in your benefit-cost analysis.
Topic 2: Moving from pilot to full scale
PGE's residential battery pilot, running since 2020, set out to answer three questions. Can customer-owned batteries be dispatched as a dependable fleet? Which grid services are ready to scale? Will customers accept utility control? The answer to all three was yes: demand response is ready now, while other grid services need more testing. PGE's full-scale program is now before the Oregon Public Utility Commission.
Wood offered a different angle. "The bigger risk isn't growing too fast, it's designing a program that won't grow," he said.
Smith added a technology lens: a battery product is ready to scale when it fits the use case and budget, can be sourced reliably at volume, and meets local permitting and code requirements.
By the numbers
- More than 600 customer batteries dispatched across hundreds of event hours in PGE's pilot
- 80,000 participants added in one year to Puerto Rico's program
- More than 500 megawatts of enrolled capacity in California's Demand Side Grid Support Program
Tips for utilities
- Lock in multiyear incentives or budgets to show the market you're committed.
- Keep incentives simple, such as a flat payment per kilowatt-hour.
- Start with a lightweight tech stack and build it out over time.
- Work with manufacturers and third-party owners as aggregators, since they already have the customer relationships.
- Build internal expertise for strategy, regulatory reporting, and change management, and bring in outside support to move faster.
Topic 3: Balancing customer and grid needs
Every battery in a program serves three parties: the customer who owns it, the utility counting on it, and the aggregator connecting them. Customers mainly buy batteries for backup power, so programs protecting that resilience earn their trust. Utilities need predictable performance across the fleet. Aggregators need standard terms and stable incentives. Wood noted that programs are most likely to stall when those needs go unmet.
PGE keeps planning realistic by tracking opt-out rates, response rates, and realization rates, which measure the share of nominated capacity that actually shows up during an event. "Not everybody has to show up for every event, but the fleet does," Wood said.
By the numbers
- 20% minimum backup reserve kept for customers in PGE's program
- More than 5 kilowatts per battery when export is allowed, compared with about 2 kilowatts or less when output is limited to site load
- One to four hours is the sweet spot for today's lithium iron phosphate batteries
Tips for utilities
- Protect customers' backup power, give advance notice of events, and allow opt-outs.
- Pay for performance so customers see a clear link between what they commit and what they earn.
- Plan around delivered capacity, not nominated capacity.
- Allow export wherever you can, and if you must limit it, do so only on constrained feeders.
- Reach out to customers whose devices stay offline for long stretches.
Topic 4: Looking ahead
The next few years will be shaped more by program maturity than new battery chemistry. Wood described it as a walk-jog-run progression. Most programs today run a small bring-your-own-device fleet with a few summer events. Leading programs already dispatch automatically and offer more grid services, and the end goal is a fleet responding to real-time feeder and market conditions.
Electrification adds another layer. As homes add heat pumps and electric vehicles, batteries can charge off-peak and discharge during peaks. Cohen Moore flagged one planning risk: as fleets grow, grid charging needs careful modeling so batteries don't create new peaks.
On the technology side, Smith encouraged utilities to keep checking the numbers as costs fall and performance improves. "If it doesn't work for you today, I would say maybe look again in a couple of years," she said.
By the numbers
- 50 or more automated dispatch events a year in leading programs
- 10 to 20 major system peaks a year at PGE, with plans to dispatch more often
- 80% to 90% of batteries in PGE's market are integrated with its distributed energy resource management platform
Tips for utilities
- Reassess battery economics regularly, since costs and performance are improving fast.
- Move forward with today's technology, because most battery types are interchangeable at the system level.
- Charge the fleet before events and use standby commands afterward to limit rebound.
- Model grid charging carefully as fleets grow.
- Value the program's future potential, not just its current state, in cost-effectiveness tests.
From the Q&A
- Safety: Smith explained the industry takes battery safety seriously, with strict regulations governing how batteries are manufactured and operated. Today's batteries are designed to operate safely, and fires are rare, typically occurring only after significant damage or misuse.
- Rebate programs: A growing approach is to offer a rebate on the device and pre-enroll it in a demand response program. Wood recommends working backward from cost-effectiveness to find the highest incentive your program can support.
- Remote sites and microgrids: Ruggedness, temperature range, and logistics matter more in these settings. Smith noted new water-based batteries could ship dry, cutting shipping weight by more than half.
- Data and integrations: Integration with utility systems determines which grid services a program can offer. PGE's next step is deeper integration with its grid operations systems to support automated dispatch.
Keep the conversation going
Batteries are ready for demand response today. The work ahead lies in program design, data integration, and economics. Utilities that start now will be better positioned to turn customer investment into reliable grid capacity at a lower cost.
- Watch the full recording on the CLEAResult Energetics YouTube channel.
- Follow CLEAResult on LinkedIn to get your invitation to Episode 5 in October.
- Connect with an expert by filling out our contact form.