Electricity is the backbone of the modern economy, and demand is accelerating. Data centers, electrified transport, and energy-intensive industrial processes are driving the fastest growth in electricity consumption seen in decades. Grid expansion and generation capacity additions are struggling to keep pace.
Distributed energy storage is emerging as a critical response. Batteries deployed close to load growth can be installed faster than centralized assets, avoid interconnection bottlenecks, and reduce pressure on distribution networks. They also help manage renewable intermittency.
A new generation of startups is transforming homes, buildings, and distributed assets into active grid resources. These companies are redefining how electricity is stored, managed, and dispatched across decentralised energy systems.
This article is part of our Distributed Energy Resources Series. It builds on earlier coverage of implementation challenges, emerging solutions, commercial agreements, and funding trends shaping DER adoption.
Sympower (Netherlands)
Sympower is an independent flexibility services provider optimizing electricity systems through demand-side flexibility. The company enables grid operators to balance supply and demand in real time. Their mission is to reduce the reliance on fossil fuel energy and support higher renewable penetration across the grid.
Founded in 2015 by Imperial College London alumni Simon Bushell and Georg Rute, Sympower was built around demand-side grid optimization. The company is based on the idea that managing electricity demand is more efficient than increasing generation capacity.
Acting as a virtual power plant, Sympower aggregates flexible electricity consumption from industrial assets and distributed energy resources, offering this capacity as reserves to transmission and distribution system operators across Europe.
Sympower’s AI-powered platform integrates with industrial equipment such as e-boilers, battery energy storage systems, and other distributed energy resources. With over 2.7 GW of flexible assets under management, Sympower is increasingly focused on grid-scale battery optimization and pan-European expansion.
Sympower raised $22.29 million in Series B funding in September 2025. The capital supports the expansion of its BESS footprint, acquisition pipeline, and pan-European growth strategy critical to Europe’s energy transition.
Dcbel (Canada)
Dcbel is a technology company that develops AI-powered home energy stations that give consumers greater control over how energy is generated, stored, and used. Its solutions enable homeowners to manage household electricity, electric vehicle charging, and solar power through a single integrated system.
At the core of dcbel’s offering is the r16 Home Energy Station, designed as a residential renewable energy ecosystem. The system combines bidirectional EV charging, smart energy management software, and compatibility with rooftop solar installations.
Dcbel’s platform allows energy to flow both to and from electric vehicles and the home. This enables vehicle-to-home charging during outages, optimized charging during off-peak periods, and reduced reliance on the grid when prices are high.
The AI-driven system supports charging two electric vehicles simultaneously and optimizes energy use using machine learning. By coordinating solar generation, EV storage, and household demand, dcbel helps lower energy costs while reducing emissions. Dcbel raised $55 million in Series C funding in March 2025.
Aira (Sweden)
Aira is a Swedish clean energy technology company expanding beyond heat pumps to deliver fully integrated home energy systems. The company recently launched the Aira Power range, introducing the Aira Power Hub inverter and Aira Power Store battery for the residential market.
The new products are designed to operate alongside rooftop solar and Aira’s air-source heat pumps, forming a single, coordinated home energy system. Together, these components enable households to generate, store, and manage energy more efficiently, with the potential to reduce energy bills by over 90 percent.
Aira follows a vertically integrated model, covering system design, installation, and ongoing operation. This approach simplifies deployment and offers a set-and-forget experience in a market traditionally defined by fragmented solutions. The system is supported by Aira Intelligence, which optimizes energy use based on household patterns, pricing signals, and available generation.
By combining heating, solar, storage, and intelligent control into a single platform, Aira positions itself as a whole-home energy management provider for Europe’s residential energy transition. The company raised $174.86 million in Series C funding in August 2025.
Base Power (USA)
Base Power is a Texas-based energy company providing reliable and affordable home energy services through distributed battery systems. The company installs large residential batteries that provide backup power during outages while lowering electricity costs for households.
Base Power offers customers a bundled service that includes battery installation, backup protection, and retail electricity supply.
The company installs 25 kWh or 50 kWh home batteries, which can power essential household loads for up to 48 hours. Base retains ownership of the batteries and aggregates them into a distributed fleet. When backup power is not required, the batteries are dispatched to sell electricity back to the grid during periods of peak demand. This model allows Base to generate revenue through price arbitrage while customers benefit from low upfront costs and energy savings.
Founded in 2023, Base Power has deployed more than 100 MWh of residential storage across Texas. The company raised $1 billion in Series C funding in October 2025.
Torus (USA)
Torus is a Utah-based energy storage and management company focused on grid stabilization and renewable energy integration. The company develops inertia-based energy systems designed to deliver fast, reliable grid services.
Its core technology, the Torus Spin Flywheel™, stores energy mechanically rather than chemically. Unlike traditional batteries, which rely on electrochemical reactions, the system stores energy by spinning a rotor at high speeds. This enables very high power density, response times under 250 milliseconds, and a significantly longer operating life than conventional batteries.
Torus combines flywheel technology with battery systems to deliver both rapid response and sustained energy duration. These modular units can be deployed on-site or at the grid edge and provide frequency regulation, backup power, and grid balancing services.
Torus serves utilities, data centers, and industrial and commercial customers. Manufacturing and R&D operations are based in South Salt Lake and Springville, Utah. The company raised $200 million in Series A funding in September 2025.
Building grid resilience without grid expansion
The startups featured in this article illustrate how DERs are becoming a structural component of modern power systems. By aggregating batteries, flexible demand, and hybrid storage at the point of consumption, they address grid constraints created by rising electricity demand, renewable intermittency, and electrification.
Rather than relying solely on large, centralized infrastructure, these companies enable faster deployment, localized resilience, and more efficient use of existing networks. Their models reduce pressure on transmission and distribution investment while improving system responsiveness.
As electricity demand continues to grow, distributed energy resources are moving from intermittent solutions to core grid infrastructure. Continued investment and regulatory alignment will determine how quickly these approaches scale.
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