Exciting news: Evergy has received the Smart Energy Innovation Award from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) for its Grid Resiliency program, developed in partnership with ecobee and Uplight!
The award, announced at the 2026 Symposia on DERs and Customer Engagement, recognizes Evergy’s innovations in moving beyond traditional demand response approaches to meet grid challenges with a scalable, customer-friendly solution that leverage existing resources.
About Evergy’s Grid Resiliency Program
Evergy’s Grid Resiliency program was developed to address critical industry challenges including load growth, regional pressures in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), and demand response enrollment limitations (only about half of U.S. energy customers are aware of available demand response programs, and significantly less participate).
To meet resource adequacy and resilience goals, the Grid Resiliency program scales demand response’s impact during times of critical grid stress by dispatching load from all ecobee thermostats—regardless of program enrollment—to unlock mass-market participation.
Using an opt-out model, the program uses proactive communication and small, nearly imperceptible temperature adjustments while preserving customer comfort and control. The program is designed to be dispatched infrequently—only when SPP grid status reaches the Resource Advisory level or higher.
Customer experience was top of mind for Evergy in program design. The utility developed clear, proactive messaging that assures customers that while their thermostat may be adjusted, they maintain ultimate control through the opt-out option—while emphasizing the outsized impact that their participation will have on their community and the grid. This thoughtful communication strategy clearly explains the program to customers without causing confusion or alarm.
During the first Grid Resiliency season, Evergy achieved impressive results:
- 23 MW peak load reduction across both Kansas and Missouri states
- 15,000+ ecobee thermostats responded (4,477 in Missouri and 10,759 in Kansas)
- 31% increase in Evergy’s dispatchable capacity
These results demonstrated the program’s potential to provide fast, scalable relief when the grid needs it most, while keeping customers at the center of program design.
What’s Next for Grid Resiliency?
Evergy plans to build on its year one success by optimizing performance using year one learnings, exploring additional use cases for Grid Resiliency, and growing the number of ecobee customers within its service territory.
Grid Resiliency is now an offering for Uplight’s Demand Response solution. Utilities can partner with Uplight and ecobee to gain instant access to significantly more dispatchable capacity when the grid needs it most—no enrollments required.
