In June, Uplight reached an exciting milestone: one million enrollments across our demand response programs in North America! This means that we have one million devices and behavioral demand response (BDR) enrollments actively participating in the grid.
We’ve already run 241 events this summer and have added 246 MWuM through new enrollments in the month of June alone. Across ten clients using Predictive Capacity Dispatch (PCD), there’s 300MW sustained load shift potential over a four-hour period and 430 MW over a one-hour period.
Uplight’s unique Demand Stack approach prioritizes customer experiences—making enrollment and retention easy. With 97% of automated DR customers staying enrolled year-over-year, our commitment to customer experience pays off.
What’s included in the one million enrollments
This milestone spans the full breadth of Uplight’s DR programs, including automated DR, opt-in BDR, opt-out BDR, and opt-out OEM programs like Grid Resiliency. Our automated DR programs aggregate a diverse range of DERs across customer classes:
- Smart thermostats
- Residential and C&I Batteries
- Water heaters
- Heat pumps
- EVs/EVSE
- Baseboard heaters
Notably, Uplight has enrolled nearly 2,800 home batteries across our programs, with one utility alone surpassing 1,000 battery households in their 100 MW VPP.
Why CX is the secret to DSM scale
Reaching one million enrollments requires meeting customers where they are with frictionless, intuitive experiences. Uplight has driven enrollment by selling discounted Demand Response Pre-Enrolled (DRPE) smart thermostats on utility Marketplaces, launching 1-click enrollment campaigns, and leveraging opt-out BDR program design—which sees 70-80% participation rates. These strategies remove the barriers that have historically kept willing customers on the sidelines.
Utilities can also leverage insights from Uplight’s Customer Intelligence Hub to target specific customer segments. Customers can be filtered by location, device ownership, household occupants, demographics, and more, enabling utilities to reach eligible customers with personalized offers.
As load growth accelerates and grid constraints intensify, the utilities best positioned to respond will be those with coordinated demand-side programs and delightful customer experiences. We’re excited to put one million devices (and growing) to work this summer for a more reliable, affordable, and sustainable grid.
