For those of us who have worked in energy storage, we understand that change and disruption have always been part of our industry's landscape. This year’s record-breaking heat waves and extreme weather events have proven that a more resilient and reliable grid is not just desirable—it's essential.
Extreme weather events can drive energy demand to unprecedented levels, often exceeding the capacity of the grid, and leaving millions vulnerable to potential outages and disruptions. In this context, the availability of energy storage has become critical. At FlexGen, we know that simply adding more energy storage capacity to the grid isn't enough. Optimizing the performance of existing and future battery energy storage systems (BESS) through proven software solutions is key to ensuring communities can rely on uninterrupted power during extreme weather events.
Why Optimizing Availability Matters
We often explain power grid congestion with a highway traffic analogy. Just as too many cars on a highway slow down movement and can cause gridlock, too much electricity flowing through certain power lines can cause bottlenecks, reducing the efficiency of energy delivery. Highways have a limited number of lanes, just like power lines have a limited capacity. If traffic exceeds what the lanes can handle, congestion occurs and makes the likelihood of an accident more likely, sometimes leading to entire road closures. Similarly, when electricity demand exceeds transmission capacity, energy flow must be rerouted or curtailed, leading to inefficiencies and potential outages. Fortunately, adding battery storage capacity to the grid is like adding lanes to a highway, decreasing the chance of congestion or outages, but only if BESS sites are online during peak demand.
When a BESS site is offline during extreme weather, the resulting grid outage can have life-threatening consequences for consumers who depend on devices like breathing machines or temperature-controlled medications. For energy storage operators, more outages mean slower payback periods, higher risks, and the possibility of missing out on critical revenue opportunities during peak demand events.
FlexGen has helped customers maintain an annual availability of 98% across energy storage sites, compared to 93% from their closest competitors. The difference between 93% and 98% availability may sound small, but it has enormous consequences for energy storage owners and consumers. For example, in Texas, where there is approximately 8 GW of BESS capacity, the difference in availability between 98% and 93% is about 400 MW. This additional 400 MW of available capacity, comparable to powering 400,000 homes or a mid-sized metropolitan area, can make a critical difference in maintaining grid stability and meeting peak energy demand, even during the coldest freezes and the hottest summer spikes.
The Texas Example: Real-World Impact
Our experience in Texas provides a vivid example of how controlling what you can control—specifically, choosing the right energy management platform—affects both financial outcomes and community resilience. During the August heatwave this year, as temperatures soared into triple digits, one of our customers operating in the ERCOT market kept their sites online 100% of the time, resulting in $2 million in revenue and providing enough energy to power over 3,300 homes in a single afternoon.
Similarly, during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, our technology helped customers achieve 99.7% uptime across their battery storage portfolio. While other energy systems were crippled by the freezing temperatures, leaving millions without power, FlexGen-powered sites generated millions in revenue and powered nearly 26,000 homes—equivalent to almost half the households in cities like Plano, TX or Irvine, CA.
Winter Storm Uri Statistics
164 Hours Storm Duration
159 Hours of Emergency Response Time
99.7% Battery Uptime for FlexGen-Supported Systems
703.28 MWh of Total Throughput by FlexGen-Supported Systems
Proactive Energy Management is the Key
The energy storage industry has focused heavily on expanding capacity, but this alone isn’t enough to protect the grid during extreme weather. Without proactive management, energy storage assets are at risk of experiencing unexpected downtimes during times when the grid needs them most. FlexGen has addressed this industry-wide challenge by empowering BESS operators with advanced energy management solutions, including its HybridOS software platform that provides real-time visibility into performance and predictive analytics. These tools allow operators to detect issues quickly, identify root causes, and resolve them, reducing both the frequency and duration of outages. At FlexGen, we describe that as the Detect-Evaluate-Act cycle, where the key to maximizing uptime and performance is to close that loop as fast as possible and share learnings with all stakeholders.
FlexGen’s commitment to minimizing outages goes beyond software—it's our philosophy to be customer and availability obsessed. This proactive approach results in tens of millions in incremental revenue for our customers, while enhancing operational efficiency and safeguarding communities. As our CEO Kelcy Pegler notes, "We are proud of our performance compared to peers, but the real benchmark we strive for is 100% availability. That's why the vast majority of our fleet operates above 99%."
The Future of Grid Resilience: It’s More Than Just Capacity
In an environment where energy policies may shift and weather patterns grow more extreme, the fundamental requirements of grid resilience remain constant. Looking forward, the grid's ability to withstand extreme weather events will increasingly depend on energy storage systems being able to charge and discharge energy, raise and lower frequency, and insert or absorb reactive power in real time. Regardless of the policy landscape, what matters most is focusing on the factors within our control—choosing and implementing systems that are managed proactively to ensure peak performance, even under the harshest conditions and most challenging use cases. Simply adding more storage without optimizing existing systems leaves the grid vulnerable to outages when energy demand spikes.
With our latest release of HybridOS V12, we're providing storage operators with even more powerful tools to boost uptime. In a sector marked by constant change, these capabilities help operators deliver consistent value by efficiently detecting issues, evaluating and troubleshooting root causes, and taking action, all within a single platform. By reducing outages and increasing operational uptime, HybridOS V12 enhances the profitability of energy storage assets while strengthening the grid's reliability.
Conclusion: Safeguarding the Grid and Those who Depend on it
As extreme weather events become more frequent and intense, and as the clean energy sector adapts to potential policy changes, our mission remains clear and unchanged. The importance of energy storage availability cannot be overstated. At FlexGen, we know that merely adding capacity isn't enough—energy storage systems must be optimized for maximum performance to ensure the grid can withstand periods of peak demand. Our focus on proactive management, technological innovation, and operational excellence is setting a new standard for the energy storage industry.
As Pegler notes, "Our goal isn't just to provide software—we are safeguarding the grid and the millions of people who depend on it."
