{"id":27968,"date":"2026-03-16T20:22:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=27968"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:22:03","slug":"samsung-bets-this-island-startup-can-tame-the-grid-with-software-and-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=27968","title":{"rendered":"Samsung bets this island startup can tame the grid with software and batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The electrical grid has changed more in the last decade than the preceding five. Solar, wind, and batteries have pushed power generation away from monolithic producers. But fundamentally, the grid still suffers from the same challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem on the grid is a peak problem. Most of the time you\u2019re okay, you have plenty of power. But in those peak hours you might not have enough,\u201d Michael Phelan, co-founder and CEO of Grid Beyond<\/a>, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

Today, those shortages are most acutely felt by tech companies and data center developers, which need large amounts of electricity to train and operate AI models.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you have enough energy stored in a battery or you have an industrial load you can turn down \u2014 and it\u2019s hundreds of megawatts \u2014 then you can start building those hyperscalers,\u201d Phelan said.<\/p>\n

Grid Beyond has been building hardware and software<\/a> to stitch together disparate parts of the grid to behave as larger virtual power plants. The startup already manages around 1 gigawatt of solar, batteries, wind, and hydropower, and on the demand side, it has \u201cseveral gigawatts\u201d across commercial and industrial facilities, Phelan said.<\/p>\n

To expand its portfolio, Grid Beyond recently raised a \u20ac12 million ($13.8 million) equity round led by Samsung Ventures, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. Other participating investors include ABB, Act Venture Cattail, Alantra\u2019s Energy Transition Fund, Constellation, EDP, Energy Impact Partners, Enterprise Ireland, Klima, Mirova, and Japanese electronics and software company Yokogawa.<\/p>\n

The startup has its hardware controllers installed in batteries and renewable power plants along with large commercial and industrial facilities in Australia, Ireland, Japan, Ireland, the UK, and the United States.<\/p>\n

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Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Like many virtual power plant companies, Dublin-headquartered Grid Beyond got its start on an island. As Ireland began adding wind power, Phelan said, \u201cthey hit this problem where they were an island and they had to balance the grid. So it was very suitable for them to have things like flexible load that they could put into the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grid operators have long asked heavy users to curtail their power use during extreme heat waves. For example, paying users handsomely to shave peaks off demand. The practice is cheaper than building new transmission lines or power plants. The practice has expanded as renewables have surged, allowing industrial and commercial customers to reduce usage at night or when the wind dies down.<\/p>\n

More recently, batteries have added a new dimension. Grid Beyond manages several large energy storage installations, including a 200-megawatt battery in California. The new source of flexible supply helps fill dips from renewable power.<\/p>\n

Batteries have another advantage: they\u2019refar quicker at responding to demand than traditional peaking power plants, which can take minutes to come online. That allows the company to buy and sell power rapidly in a form of arbitrage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also opens up new possibilities for data centers. Many data centers don\u2019t draw power continuously, instead peaking during AI training. These events can cause oscillations on the grid \u2014 \u201cyou know the thing that collapsed the Spanish grid, which is not what people want,\u201d Phelan said. Batteries located at data centers can absorb much of this load, smoothing out the facility\u2019s profile on the grid so it doesn\u2019t cause unwanted fluctuations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By plugging into a nearby virtual power plant or by using batteries installed on site, \u201cit\u2019s easier obviously for them to get connection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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