Research
We study how energy equipment on customer sites can work as one system with the grid, and publish what we learn.
The problem
The grid is being asked to serve data centers, vehicles and electrified buildings faster than new lines and plants can be built. Part of the capacity it needs already sits on customer sites, in chargers, batteries, generators and building systems.
That equipment speaks dozens of protocols, comes from hundreds of vendors and was never designed to act together. Using it well starts with knowing what each device is, what it can do and how far it can move without breaking a site limit.
What we study
- Interoperability: describing every device once, in one model, so software can read and control it the same way whoever made it.
- Flexibility: how much a site can shift its load, and how fast, while staying inside its own electrical limits and the operating envelope its utility sets.
- Homes: how solar, batteries, vehicles and heat pumps interact with residential electrical systems, through the Voltra Energy Research Network.
How we work
We test on real equipment and real sites, with national laboratories where a question needs a lab. Research data is shared only in de-identified form, under the terms participants agree to.
Current work
Voltra Energy Research Network
[program]A study of how distributed energy resources behave in homes and on the grid, with participants who opt in. Read the participation terms.
Writing
We rewrote our authorization service in three days
[essay]What it took to replace a core service quickly and safely.
Why we chose Elixir as our language of choice
[essay]Thousands of long-lived connections to unreliable devices, and the runtime built for that problem.
We are on the cusp of a new era of power: the decentralized grid
[essay]Why coordinating distributed assets is now a communication problem as much as a hardware one.