Itron and Xcel Energy Celebrate Battery Milestone on the Path to Colorado’s First Battery Virtual Power Plant

Xcel Energy continues to drive grid reliability and customer centricity with a major milestone: the installation of nearly 2,000 batteries as part of its Renewable Battery Connect program. In just six months, Xcel Energy collaborated with Itron to onboard more than 15 megawatts (MW) of battery capacity actively managed through Itron’s IntelliFLEX Grid Edge DERMS solution that can provide over 5 MW of delivered capacity to reduce peak load during events. This achievement propels Xcel forward on its journey toward deploying a battery-focused virtual power plant (VPP)—and represents a foundational step in building a more sustainable, decentralized and customer-centric energy future for Colorado.  

Inside Colorado’s Battery Storage Milestone
This first-of-its-kind initiative is part of Xcel’s Renewable Battery Connect program, designed to manage peak loads and maintain reliability amid rising energy demand and growing adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs). By integrating Itron’s grid edge DERMS solution with Tesla and other battery vendors platforms, the program streamlines administration, optimizes DER performance and lays the foundation for a future VPP under one centralized system. It also enables continued innovation, leveraging distributed intelligence-enabled meters for use cases like transformer protection and advanced grid edge capabilities.

In the future, Xcel Energy plans to operate a seamless interface to view and control batteries and other DERs, including solar, electric vehicles and smart thermostats, helping stabilize the grid through intelligent DER management. The program enables Xcel Energy to optimize batteries paired with rooftop solar for residential and small business customers by remotely adjusting charging and discharging schedules. Beyond reducing peak load, Xcel is also using targeted customer groups to test various operational schedules over the next one to two years. As the program scales, the results of these RBC events will demonstrate how customer-sited batteries can support seasonal system peaks.  

Turning DER Complexity into Grid Edge Opportunity 
As consumer adoption of battery energy storage accelerates, utilities face growing complexity at the grid edge. Xcel is leading the way by transforming that complexity into opportunity. With Itron’s grid edge DERMS, Xcel can enlist customer-owned residential battery storage as a flexible resource to support the grid. These resources at scale help optimize operations, improve reliability, reduce costs and empower customers to better utilize renewable energy. 
Participating customers receive an upfront incentive to support the purchase of a battery and annual performance payments to allow Xcel to control their batteries year-round. Equally important, this project reflects a future-ready approach, showcasing how collaboration among technology providers, utilities and consumers enables innovation that delivers real-world impact.

Scaling Innovation for Xcel’s Distributed Energy Future
Xcel Energy is just getting started. The utility’s end goal is to unify DER management under one integrated system, supporting program harmonization across dozens of programs and multiple states. Looking ahead, Xcel’s VPP initiative has the potential to scale to tens of thousands of DERs and hundreds of MWs of distributed capacity, and Itron is proud to play a part in bringing this vision to life. We look forward to continued collaboration in 2026 and the many milestones ahead as Xcel sets a new standard for clean energy leadership.

Visit Itron at DTECH
Itron’s IntelliFLEX solution dispatches 70GWh via 3 million DER devices for over 30 utilities globally. To learn how we’re bringing better data and more insights to the grid edge, visit us at DTECH 2026, Feb. 2-5, in booth #2715. 

We also invite you to attend an interactive session, “Locational Demand-Side Management for the Next Generation of Grid Operations,” featuring moderator Mike Ting, senior product manager at Itron, and panelists Doug Middleton, utility and virtual power plant business development, Tesla; Michael Witter, IT manager – flexible loads, Sacramento Municipal Utility District; and Kristin Gaspar, principal strategy and planning consultant, Xcel Energy. Tune in to explore how emerging AMI 2.0 capabilities, grid-edge sensing and device-level intelligence can work together to deliver measurable distribution-level value.