Delivering Grid Value at Scale

Distributed Capacity Procurement

With new load growth on the horizon, utilities face the dual challenge of maintaining affordability and building fast enough to support economic growth. To meet this unprecedented demand and unlock the full value of the grid, utilities are employing DCP to plan, site, deploy, and dispatch distributed energy resources (DERs) to create a more efficient, energy-dense, and cost-effective grid.

We partner with utilities, energy majors, hyperscalers, and building owners to achieve critical outcomes in:

Grid Growth Acceleration
Peak Management
Resiliency, Reliability, and Grid Hardening

Discover how Sparkfund's flagship solution unlocks the full value of the grid at the scale and pace necessary to meet demand today.

A New Tool for Utilities and Data Centers

Sparkfund's DCP model empowers utilities and data centers to answer the rapidly evolving and variable deployment rate of the energy market with scale, speed, and flexibility.

By overcoming one of the main challenges with DERs to date — operational unpredictability and random siting — the DCP model integrates DERs into utility system planning processes, ultimately allowing utilities to meet infrastructure needs across grid growth, efficiency, and hardening.

Utility-led deployment of DERs, delivers flexible system-level capacity — transforming our energy landscape.

Sparkfund has the experience and capabilities to help make it happen.

Affordability: Lowers system costs through grid value maximization and a competitive local supply chain.
Reliability: Enhances resilience, provides backup power, and improves community preparedness.
Clean Energy: Accelerates solar, storage, and efficiency adoption, reducing emissions and bills.

Stronger Communities: Prioritizes delivery of local energy infrastructure to build stronger communities.
Economic Development: Attracts investments, creates jobs, and stimulates innovation in the territory.
Faster Time to Power: Leverages modular DERs for rapid response to grid needs and electrification efforts.

Plan

Our planning phase leverages in-house expertise and partners with leading grid analytics firms to answer crucial questions:

Where will distributed generation and storage be most beneficial?
How will each energy resource impact the grid now and in the future?
Where do these solutions make the most economic sense?

Deploy

Once optimal locations and resource types are identified, our Deployment Services team springs into action by:

Organizing competitive, local vendor workforces.
Engaging customer site hosts.
Managing procurement, design, installation, and maintenance of distributed resources.

Dispatch

Once the assets are installed, our team coordinates with stakeholders to seamlessly integrate with DERMS and the full technology stack for dispatch, including:

Coordinating with providers to integrate communication with assets.
Coordinating the integration of existing IT and OT tools like SCADA/ADMS with centralized DERMs to dispatch distributed capacity in areas that need it most.
Partnering with preferred providers across the technology stack or assisting in DERMs selection.

Deployment Services

Our goal is to help utilities accelerate the deployment of distributed assets, delivering flexible system-level capacity that reduces costs to all ratepayers by smoothing peak demand and avoiding or deferring the need for CTs/peakers, as well as reducing costly transmission and distribution system upgrades as demand grows rapidly.

Sparkfund simplifies the delivery of grid value at scale with key support functions that include:

Host engagement
Value chain management
Data and analysis
Admin, safety, and compliance

Accelerate the VPP Model

By leveraging central planning to incorporate grid value, DCP builds on the success of VPPs and deploys critical capacity faster. Sparkfund anticipates deploying 200+ MW per year compared to, for example, the Rocky Mountain VPP Watt Power program, which enrolled just 6.7 MW in 2021.

Cohesive Customer Experience

A utility-led, utility-branded customer journey from enrollment through participation provides an integrated experience that aligns incentives, lowers friction, shortens sales cycles, and increases participation — ultimately deploying assets faster.

Targeted Grid Value

Compared to a traditional VPP, the DCP approach leverages utility led planning to strategically deploy assets in places that avoid the most cost and creates the most value for the grid. An optimized value chain then maximizes the efficiency of existing distribution infrastructure by ensuring quality install and maintenance, cybersecurity, and alignment with community goals.

Delivering Grid Value at Scale

Distributed Capacity Procurement

A New Tool for Utilities and Data Centers

Sparkfund's DCP model empowers utilities and data centers to answer the rapidly evolving and variable deployment rate of the energy market with scale, speed, and flexibility.

Sparkfund has the experience and capabilities to help make it happen.

Distributed Capacity Procurement

Utility-led DER deployment delivers capacity at the scale and pace necessary to unlock the full value of the grid.

How it Works

At Sparkfund, we understand the complexities of modern energy needs. That's why we've developed a robust three-layer framework to ensure success:

Plan

Deploy

Dispatch

Deployment Services

“My sense is, for the electric utility industry, this [DCP] is becoming a priority because of just how important of a tool this is to solving some of their challenges in the near term, right? And for the solar industry, this could become a priority because of virtual power plants and the like.”

DERs at Scale: Grid Value Stack

The DCP Model efficiently meets grid demand where it is

Accelerate the VPP Model

Cohesive Customer Experience

Targeted Grid Value

The Math Behind the Impact

What if utilities deployed DERs quickly and at scale?

Annual Breakdown

If each utility deployed 1MW of accredited capacity on 500 buildings, that would result in 500MW of new capacity.

The Long-Term Potential

If 50 utilities repeated this every year, we’d achieve an annualized deployment rate 25 GW.

That’s ~2% of today’s entire U.S. grid capacity deployed in 12 months!

The Future Grid:

Are you ready to unlock grid value?

Delivering Grid Value at Scale

Distributed Capacity Procurement

A New Tool for Utilities and Data Centers

Sparkfund's DCP model empowers utilities and data centers to answer the rapidly evolving and variable deployment rate of the energy market with scale, speed, and flexibility.

Sparkfund has the experience and capabilities to help make it happen.

Distributed Capacity Procurement

Utility-led DER deployment delivers capacity at the scale and pace necessary to unlock the full value of the grid.

How it Works

At Sparkfund, we understand the complexities of modern energy needs. That's why we've developed a robust three-layer framework to ensure success:

Plan

Deploy

Dispatch

Deployment Services

“My sense is, for the electric utility industry, this [DCP] is becoming a priority because of just how important of a tool this is to solving some of their challenges in the near term, right? And for the solar industry, this could become a priority because of virtual power plants and the like.”

DERs at Scale: Grid Value Stack

The DCP Model efficiently meets grid demand where it is

Accelerate the VPP Model

Cohesive Customer Experience

Targeted Grid Value

The Math Behind the Impact

What if utilities deployed DERs quickly and at scale?

Annual Breakdown

If each utility deployed 1MW of accredited capacity on 500 buildings, that would result in 500MW of new capacity.

The Long-Term Potential

If 50 utilities repeated this every year, we’d achieve an annualized deployment rate 25 GW. That’s ~2% of today’s entire U.S. grid capacity deployed in 12 months!

The Future Grid:

Are you ready to unlock grid value?

If 50 utilities repeated this every year, we’d achieve an annualized deployment rate 25 GW.

That’s ~2% of today’s entire U.S. grid capacity deployed in 12 months!