During the week of June 23rd, a climate phenomenon called a “heat dome” sent temperatures soaring and triggered extreme humidity in the eastern United States. Some regions saw record high temperatures, with cities like Boston and Baltimore reaching 101 degrees Fahrenheit. 

For Uplight, record breaking temperatures meant a record breaking week for our utility demand response programs. Demand response, just one of the tools in the utility Demand Stack, shaves grid load during peak times by slightly adjusting enrolled distributed energy resources (DERs)—including thermostats, batteries, electric vehicle chargers, and water heaters—during a 2-4 hour “event” to reduce energy consumption. 

To manage the overwhelming grid demand that came along with the soaring temperatures during the week of June 23rd, Uplight ran 45 unique events across 16 different utility programs, representing 350 megawatts of energy load under management – enough to power about 300,000 homes. This was Uplight’s highest weekly event volume to date, breaking last year’s record of 25 events over nine days. Last week’s events encompassed a variety of customer segments, devices, and regions, including: 

• 3 customer segments: residential, SMB, and commercial & industrial (C&I)
• 5 distributed energy resource load types from smart thermostats, electric vehicle supply equipments (EVSEs), water heaters, C&I, and load control switches 
• 3 time zones and 2 countries across the Eastern, Midwest, and Pacific regions of the United States and Canada

This first and early season heatwave cements demand response as a frontline defense against grid emergencies, offering a tangible, impactful example of how customer participation is quickly becoming a tool for delivering grid resilience. By helping to ease grid strain during extreme weather events, utilities are avoiding outages and reducing the need to deploy costly peaker plants.  

The early start to this year’s summer demand response season builds upon a successful 2024 season, where Uplight ran 116 events that managed over 4.5 GW of load. Some highlights from the season include: 

• Georgia Power Company shifted an average of 27 MW of load during events, and Alabama Power Company scaled enrollments to 25,000 and launched Predictive Capacity Dispatch to improve load shift predictability, grid stability, and customer satisfaction. Read the case study to learn more. 
• Alliant Energy’s demand response programs in Iowa and Wisconsin reached nearly 27,000 enrollments while delivering both high load shed and high customer satisfaction rates. Read the case study to learn more about their plans for distributed energy resource expansion. 
• Sonoma Clean Power’s demand response program contributed nearly 5 MW of capacity, boosting enrollments through an inclusive program design that includes multiple communication options while encouraging all customers to participate—whether they have a smart device or not. Access the case study to learn more. 

As electrification trends continue, we can transform DERs into assets, rather than liabilities. DERs, paired with strong strategy coordination across utilities, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and software providers, can flex with the grid to help stabilize it in key times of need. Learn how utilities can leverage a complete demand stack portfolio, including demand response alongside energy efficiency and time-varying rates, in our recent whitepaper.