How businesses and next-gen power providers are redefining America’s grid

There is a paradigm shift underway that will redefine America’s power grid: For the first time ever, businesses have an alternative to purchasing electricity from their local utility — and it's a whole lot cheaper. 

The beginning of this new power paradigm is already happening, and not a moment too soon. Instead of centralized power sources, resources like onsite solar and batteries are making power more accessible. Instead of electricity flowing one way, new energy resources are sending electricity back into the grid. To achieve a smarter, more modernized electricity system, we must reimagine today’s infrastructure and recast the grid’s main power players. Here’s how we do it:

The limits of our outdated electrical grid

For more than a century, our electrical grid has relied on centralized power plants to deliver electricity to customers, big and small. From homes and small businesses to hospitals, factories, warehouses, and beyond, electricity users have relied on these big power players that send electricity in one direction — from the power plant to homes and businesses. Utilities are generally in control, and the average electricity buyer doesn’t have much say in how or where their power is generated, nor how much it costs. 

This old power grid is no longer fit for purpose. Its infrastructure is aging and desperately needs upgrades. Electricity demand is rising thanks to electrification, AI, and new data centers. Utilities — and by extension American ratepayers — spend billions on expenses and years on planning and approvals to build new transmission and distribution infrastructure while struggling to keep up with the ever-mounting requests to add more power sources. 

We are already seeing the shortfalls in this system’s ability to support a 21st-century economy: Electricity bills are going up for American businesses and households, extreme weather and other events are threatening the reliable delivery of power, and the new infrastructure we urgently need is too often caught up in red tape waiting to be built. We are making things harder than it needs to be. Rather than patching up an outdated system, America must reimagine the way we deliver electricity. 

How DERs are driving a new power paradigm

Enter our new power paradigm. Over the past 20 years, this reimagining has been slowly under way. With solar cheaper than it’s ever been, batteries booming, and more demand than ever before, distributed energy resources (DERs) — think onsite solar and battery storage systems — are popping up on homes and businesses across the country. These DERs provide more predictable costs, hedging against the rising rates of utilities as they shoulder new demand growth, and help to ensure reliable electricity during peak demand times and blackouts. They’re a tremendous value-add to the grid at a time when we urgently need new power sources. 

What’s more, DERs can send electricity not only to homes and businesses but flowing back into the grid, where a centralized energy management system acts as traffic control, directing electrons to where they need to go. By adding to the power-generating resources that already exist, DERs allow utilities to focus less on producing enough power and more on the delivery of that power through transmission and distribution infrastructure. Onsite solar and batteries don’t replace the important work utilities do; they augment it.

But on today’s grid, DERs are still backup power sources. They’re not the star of the show — yet. A smarter, modernized grid won’t be complete until we flip the balance of electricity resources so that DERs are no longer the backup but the protagonist.

When DERs become the star of the show, scores of solar panels, batteries, and small-scale power generators will be spread across our grid, locally generated electricity will power homes and businesses close to the source, electricity will travel shorter distances from the power source to its end user, and customers will enjoy greater reliability. Decentralized power will have less need for transmission infrastructure and lower likelihood of system-wide blackouts. For electricity customers, big and small, this translates to more savings, more reliability, and more resilience.

Meet the modernized grid’s new power players

Our new power paradigm features many of the same players but recast in different roles. Here’s how everyone plays a role in building a better grid:

The Builders

As power experts, the renewable energy and infrastructure sectors lead the transformation of our grid. 

Utilities are crucial players. As centralized grid managers, they are the traffic control in our everyday power use. They also manage the transmission and distribution lines that are vital to delivering reliable power to Americans. Meanwhile, big power plants can still provide important backup power when demand is high or grid issues affect delivery.

Clean energy solutions providers — think developers of solar, battery storage, wind, and other clean technologies — are the beating heart of this new grid system. They work together to build and operate the DERs powering our economy. In a more decentralized power system, these DERs then make up the wide array of power sources spread across the United States, supplying customers with electricity.

These energy providers should be in the business of serving customers, not selling electrons. Being able to supply electricity that is as good or better than existing services is crucial for speeding the adoption of DERs. This means not only consistently high-quality electricity generation but a thoughtful approach to customer service, making sure energy providers are working in the background to anticipate and seamlessly meet customers’ needs, and making themselves available when those customers want to engage.

As we transition to this new power paradigm, the builders have an imperative to educate industry and business partners on the evolution of our electricity system. For many, if not most, American businesses, where their electricity comes from is not a top-of-mind issue until it becomes a problem. To help build a future that benefits everyone, energy providers need to help both customers and other partners imagine what the new power paradigm looks like and how it can help them achieve their goals. 

The Buyers

Big electricity buyers are helping to shape the new power paradigm, too.

Commercial businesses and manufacturers lead the way in purchasing large amounts of electricity to power their operations, from factories, office buildings, warehouses, and more. For them, low, predictable cost and short development timelines make DERs an attractive investment for decarbonizing their operations. Often, these onsite DERs take the form of rooftop, ground-mount, or carport solar energy for businesses, but they can also include battery storage, natural gas generators, wind turbines, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, linear generators, organic rankine cycle (ORC) turbines, and even geothermal energy.

Other large energy buyers like municipalities, universities, schools, and hospitals can also procure renewable energy to support the grid — and save money — by choosing to buy energy through power purchase agreements (PPAs) and other long-term contracts that guarantee demand for DERs and secure predictable electricity rates for years to come.

The Influencers

While the builders and buyers are busy creating and maintaining the new power paradigm, the Influencers work to educate the many stakeholders on the benefits of the new paradigm.

Trade associations, industry organizations, and chambers of commerce are prime examples of influencers, who support both the prosperity of American businesses and the new power paradigm needed to achieve this success. By educating their corporate partners on the benefits of shifting to PPAs tied to onsite energy resources like solar and battery storage, these influential players can help guide the business community in the right direction to strengthen the grid 

Commercial property owners can also support this transition to a new power paradigm by working with clean energy solutions providers to outfit their buildings with onsite energy infrastructure in advance of commercial tenants moving in to provide more — and more affordable — energy options to their customers.

A modern grid starts with distributed energy

By continuing to invest in an outdated electricity grid, we are working harder than we need to be. We are spending billions on long-term transmission and distribution to address problems that can be fixed with onsite energy and grid innovation today. 

With DERs as the star of the show, power players throughout the electrical grid can build a system that suits today’s energy needs. Everyone wants the same thing: affordable, clean electricity provided in a timely manner. This new power paradigm is how we make that high-quality power accessible across the country.

Are you a builder? A buyer? An influencer? Connect with Onyx Renewables today so we can explore how to build the new power paradigm — together.