GridPoint and Leap Announce Partnership to Bolster Grid Resiliency and Flexibility

Reston, VA and San Francisco, CA ( September 23, 2021) — Intelligent energy network provider GridPoint today announced its partnership with Leap, an energy marketplace provider, with the two companies collaborating on the development of virtual power plants (VPPs) to provide flexible electricity capacity and energy efficiency savings in times of peak demand and when grid emergencies occur, enabling a more resilient and reliable energy grid.

According to the Washington Post, nearly one in three Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer. As extreme weather events add stress to aging energy infrastructure, Americans are becoming increasingly vulnerable to widespread, multi-day power outages. To improve grid resiliency and reliability, underutilized energy capacity assets, including small to midsize buildings with smart grid-connected technologies, can respond to real-time energy price, demand, supply, or public safety signals to provide immediate capacity and enable automatic load reductions.

GridPoint’s hardware-enabled subscription automates energy and operational efficiency for businesses in accordance with real-time electricity supply and costs, and provides utilities and grid operators with on-demand flexibility. By partnering with Leap, GridPoint and its customers can now capture the full value of automated energy consumption reductions, linking any grid-connected load to global energy markets with Leap’s simple API. Together, GridPoint and Leap are enabling asset owners to contribute to grid resiliency efforts and receive the best value for their reduced loads in a simple, flexible manner. The two companies will continue to grow their networks of grid-interactive buildings and smart technologies to maximize the application of their combined on-demand flexible capacity, all the while creating new revenue streams for partners and customers by supporting Demand Response (DR) program participation.

“GridPoint’s mission is to enable the world’s transition to an efficient and sustainable future through smart, grid-connected buildings. As extreme weather events become more frequent and more disastrous as a result of climate change, we are excited to have Leap join us in this mission. Our team at GridPoint has already seen success in helping to mitigate blackouts during California’s deadly 2020 fire season by providing instantaneous, voluntary capacity to the state’s power grid during the emergency in August through our Open Automated DR certified technology. We look forward to expanding our impact as a result of this partnership,” said GridPoint CEO Mark Danzenbaker.

“At Leap, we are democratizing access to wholesale energy markets for both our partners and their end customers. We enable VPPs in place of massive and expensive infrastructure build outs, aggregating the value of existing smart technologies so that they can become more valuable to their owners and to the grid today. By forming partnerships with innovative, grid-edge companies like GridPoint, we’re empowering asset owners to combat the causes and effects of climate change, while also maximizing their financial benefits,” said Jason Michaels, Chief Commercial Officer at Leap.