Breakthrough microgrid design and development solution uses advanced technology to balance fossil and renewable energy loads by providing real-time transactive pricing and controlled flexible demand response.
PORTLAND, ME – Two companies are collaborating to form Dynamic Grid Systems, a new joint venture to design, develop, and implement smart microgrids that efficiently use multiple sources of energy based on real-time cost and energy load demands. Dynamic Grid Systems’ solutions will lower the cost of developing and implementing microgrids while encouraging the increased use of renewable sources. The company’s approach offers a breakthrough in one of the most challenging aspects of today’s energy grids: the ability to balance multiple energy sources, including renewables from commercial generators and prosumers who want to sell excess energy back to the grid.
Dynamic Grid Systems is a joint venture of Dynamic Organics, a Putney, VT-based designer and developer of renewable energy systems and Introspective Systems, a Portland, ME-based technology firm that develops an energy pricing and control platform.
“Today’s energy grids are optimized for fossil fuels – generators spin up when loads increase. But renewables don’t produce on demand, so it has been tricky to add them into a traditional grid,” says Morgan Casella, CEO of Dynamic Grid Systems and CEO of Dynamic Organics. “We have developed a solution to preferentially use power at the right times, and to balance generation in real time.”
“Renewables are playing a much larger role and contained communities such as islands and corporate office parks want more control over their energy costs,” says Kay Aikin, COO of Dynamic Grid Systems and CEO of Introspective Systems. “We have built sophisticated control signals into our microgrid design that adjust automatically to balance energy demand with generation, use the most cost-effective form of energy, and capture real-time pricing data to enable precise transactions both for users and generators.”
Dynamic Grid Systems was formed after Casella and Aikin met at the Accel VT business accelerator program. The combined result is a sophisticated, renewables-ready microgrid design with advanced technology to manage real-time load balancing and transactive pricing.
The company’s first joint project is to design and build a microgrid for the Isle au Haut Electric Power Company (IaHEPC). The resident-owned utility voted to deploy a renewable-ready microgrid to enable it to reduce its reliance on an aging undersea energy transmission cable and the high costs of operating its fossil-fuel backup generator. The project will store excess energy generated during the off-season and low-load times via electrochemical batteries and heat pumps coupled with thermal storage. This will offer the community energy independence and the ability to balance demand – and costs – during its high-load summer tourist season.
About Dynamic Grid Systems
Dynamic Grid Systems develops sophisticated, renewables-ready microgrids with advanced technology to manage real-time load balancing and transactive pricing. It is a joint venture of Dynamic Organics and Introspective Systems. Based in Portland, Maine, the company delivers an end-to-end energy grid solution for corporate and college campuses, islands, and other communities. For more information, visit dynamicgridsystems.com
