Powering Through the Heat: How Utilities Are Getting Ahead of Summer Demand Challenges

Friday marked the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and utilities across the country are preparing for what comes next: a season of intense heat, high electricity demand, and growing pressure on the grid. Preparing for summer isn’t just about avoiding emergencies. It’s about getting ahead of them—with data, technology, and smarter coordination across the grid.

Forecasting Tools: From Long-Term Vision to Short-Term Response

Accurate forecasting is the foundation of proactive grid management. Long-range models like our SPIDER (Spatial Penetration and Integration of Distributed Energy Resources) software help utilities understand how demand might evolve over years or decades, giving them insight into future changes to load and generation and a strategic roadmap for mitigating impacts. But during summer, short-term forecasting becomes equally critical. Grid360 Grid Impact Assessment System (GIAS) empowers utilities to model demand and simulate and enact mitigation strategies days or even hours before they’re needed. That includes everything from solar and wind generation to the impact and potential of battery storage, electric vehicles, demand response programs, power electronic devices, and microgrid support.

DERs and Flexible Load as First Responders

The modern grid is no longer one-way. With distributed energy resources (DERs) such as electric vehicles, battery storage, solar (PV), load control devices, and smart thermostats, utilities are challenged with bi-directional power flows. The grid is evolving, and utilities now have an opportunity to make DERs part of the solution to help reduce strain on the grid during peak periods, enhance grid resilience during natural disasters, and support grid reliability.

Resource Innovations’ load flexibility services, coupled with program implementation expertise and tools like our iEnergy platform, help utilities identify, enroll, manage, and scale customer- and aggregator-owned resources. The data collected not only informs program design—it also feeds into systems like Grid360 GIAS to optimize hosting capacity analysis and coordinate DER dispatch. This work is already in motion with utilities and partners worldwide, where integrated DER and demand response strategies are helping meet both resilience and decarbonization goals.

From Reactive to Proactive Grid Management

As extreme weather events grow more frequent and unpredictable, utilities must continue to combine reactive problem-solving with proactive planning and customer engagement. The transition to proactive grid management is well underway. Forward-thinking utilities are already working to orchestrate flexible load, understand present and future constraints and contingency plans, dispatch and orchestrate DERs with geographic precision, and target interventions at the circuit or feeder level before emergencies arise. These shifts make the grid more resilient and smarter.

Tools like Grid360 combined with advisory services are helping utilities make this shift by merging forecasting and planning with real-time locational intelligence and optimization, creating a more responsive and resilient system overall.

Keeping Equity Front and Center

As utilities modernize and optimize, they must also address who benefits from those upgrades. Higher-income households are more likely to have solar panels, batteries, or generators, leaving many others without backup when temperatures soar. Equity needs to be part of every utility’s summer readiness plan. That includes income-qualified demand response programs, prioritizing upgrades in under-resourced communities, and dispatching DERs in ways that don’t unintentionally worsen the burden on vulnerable customers.

The Heat Is Coming. Be Ready.

With summer around the corner, now is the time to prepare—not react. By combining cutting-edge forecasting, DER coordination, and equity-driven program design, utilities can meet the moment with strength and flexibility.

At Resource Innovations, we’re here to support that journey. From software tools to strategic planning to program implementation, we help utilities stay ahead of the curve, no matter how high the temperatures rise.