Uplight, a clean energy technology company that unlocks grid capacity by activating customers and their connected devices to generate, shift and save energy, today announced new partnerships with CORE Electric Cooperative, Imperial Irrigation District and Santee Cooper, signaling growing national demand among public power providers and cooperatives for demand flexibility solutions that can quickly and cost-effectively strengthen grid reliability and customer affordability.

Electric cooperatives and publicly owned electric utilities, including municipal utilities, which serve 28% of the US population, play a critical role in delivering safe, reliable and affordable power across the nation. These member- and government-owned non-profit organizations are heavily integrated in the communities they serve, operating with a mandate rooted in public service and a mission to provide service at cost, often serving rural and/or low-to-moderate income (LMI) customers. 

Like larger investor-owned utilities, these providers face significant challenges, including aging infrastructure, supply chain constraints, growing energy demands and pressure to adopt new technologies while maintaining affordability–at times in heavily rural communities. As such, these utilities need grid flexibility solutions that can launch quickly, improve customer experience and deliver measurable peak reductions that keep customer costs in check and benefit the community as a whole, especially for more economically vulnerable LMI customers. 

“Public power providers and co-ops are proving that demand flexibility doesn’t require huge budgets or years-long rollouts,” said Hannah Bascom, Chief Commercial Officer at Uplight. “These utilities know their communities better than anyone, and when you combine that trust with easy-to-participate-in programs, you can scale impact quickly. Our new partnerships with Santee Cooper, CORE and Imperial Irrigation District are examples of how we’re helping utilities of all sizes convert customer engagement into meaningful, scalable flexibility that supports both reliability and affordability across their communities.”

CORE and Uplight Advance Flexible Capacity in Home State of Colorado

CORE Electric Cooperative, one of the nation’s largest electric cooperatives, serving 375,000 Coloradans, will partner with Uplight to launch a smart thermostat demand response (DR) program supported by Uplight’s Edge DERMS. The program will reward participants for reducing energy usage during peak periods while supporting CORE’s responsibility to deliver affordable, reliable power. The five-year partnership will provide a foundation to expand flexible capacity over time as member participation grows, contributing to Colorado’s statewide goal to reduce 80% of its carbon emissions by 2030.

Imperial Irrigation District (IID) and Uplight Deploy Flexibility Solutions to Support Affordability in one of California’s Hottest Regions

Imperial Irrigation District, serving more than 166,000 customers in California’s Imperial Valley, including some of the state’s most disadvantaged communities, will partner with Uplight to offset rising fuel costs by reducing daily usage and peak demand. The utility selected Uplight to provide end-to-end resources that help its team drive customer engagement, expand equitable program access, and reduce exposure to ongoing fuel cost volatility. Initially, the program will include behavioral demand response for disadvantaged community (DAC) customers, and will expand to a broader-scale virtual power plant (VPP) leveraging smart thermostat demand response including bring-your-own device enrollment, which enables customers to enroll existing devices in the program. Additionally, a new online Marketplace will offer customers everyday efficiency products and simplified demand response enrollment and will include Spanish-language support.

Uplight Strengthens Seasonal Reliability for Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s Largest Power Provider

 For more than 90 years, Santee Cooper has been serving the people of South Carolina. The utility is South Carolina’s largest power provider, and the ultimate source of electricity for 2 million people across the state. Santee Cooper selected Uplight to help manage peaks that drive significant system costs and reliability risks. Under a five-year agreement beginning December 2025, Santee Cooper will deploy thermostat-based demand response (DR) programs for both winter and summer seasons. The utility chose Uplight for its customer experience focus and collaborative approach to designing programs that meet Santee Cooper’s affordability and reliability objectives.

Uplight Teams Up with Connecticut’s Energy Storage Solutions Program to Speed Up Storage Deployment across the State 

In addition to expanding partnerships with smaller utilities, municipalities, and co-ops, Uplight is collaborating with the administrators of Connecticut’s Energy Storage Solutions program via Connecticut Green Bank to streamline the customer enrollment process. The program, which is overseen by Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), helps commercial and residential customers access energy storage through upfront and performance incentives. Enrolled customers allow their utility to discharge their batteries during times of peak demand while maintaining resilience during extreme weather events. Uplight streamlines and optimizes customer enrollments, enhances program operations, and provides timely program data which enables earlier value realization for all parties involved

Through these partnerships, Uplight continues to grow its grid flexibility footprint, demonstrating how customer-centered demand flexibility can scale quickly to deliver meaningful peak reductions and more reliable grid flexibility in all regions and across all customer segments. 

Partnering with over 80 utilities, Uplight manages a total of 8.5 GW of flexible capacity across 59 programs, enabling utilities of any size transform everyday customer actions into measurable peak reduction and reliable grid flexibility by integrating energy efficiency, rates, and demand response into a unified Demand Stack. 

To learn more about Uplight’s flexibility management solutions, visit https://uplight.com/solutions/demand-response/