Unlocking the Full Value of C+I Customers in Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Programs

Commercial and industrial (C+I) customers represent one of the most powerful—and often underestimated—opportunities for utilities building next-generation distributed energy resource (DER) programs. As electrification accelerates across transportation, buildings, and industry, utilities are under pressure to deliver more flexibility, more capacity, and more resilience without driving up rates or investing in costly infrastructure upgrades. Fortunately, by leveraging DERs for demand flexibility programs like demand response, virtual power plants, and EV managed charging, utilities can shift load to off-peak periods of usage to enhance grid resiliency, defray high peak energy market and operational costs, and lower rising customer bills.

Commercial & Industrial Customers Are Uniquely Positioned To Help Meet These Challenges

Across both large C+I and small–mid business (SMB) segments, facilities are adopting distributed energy resources (DERs) like smart devices, building management systems, connected electrification technologies, and distributed storage, making them increasingly grid-interactive. Maximizing the potential of distributed energy resources (DERs) requires understanding the operational realities that shape their energy use and designing programs tailored to each group’s needs.

Together, these two major segments can strengthen grid reliability and create new value through demand flexibility, DER integration, and participation in virtual power plants (VPPs).

Large C+I: High-Value Loads with High-Impact Potential

Large commercial and industrial operations, which are complex, energy-intensive, and often continuous, consume a significant portion of a utility’s total load. These customers typically have the resources and infrastructure necessary to adopt distributed energy resource (DER) technology that supports deeper participation in grid-interactive programs.

Who They Are

This group includes:

• Large manufacturing and heavy industry
• Semiconductors and high-tech fabrication
• Hospital systems, research centers, and medical campuses
• Universities and corporate office campuses
• Water and wastewater treatment facilities
• Airports and major transportation hubs
• Data centers and cloud computing infrastructure
• Cold storage warehouses and logistics hubs

What unites them is not just energy intensity but operational predictability, an essential feature for utilities attempting to forecast and recruit reliable flexible load.

Operational Priorities That Shape Participation

Large C+I customers focus on:

• Reliability: Any interruption risks potentially high revenue loss or safety issues.
• Operational integrity: Participation must not disrupt output or workflow.
• Precision and predictability: They require clear, repeatable dispatch strategies.
• Data transparency: These customers want insight into program performance and impact.
• Long-term value: They prefer multi-year, measurable savings tied to strategic planning.

Because they often already use advanced controls like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), these facilities can integrate distributed energy resource (DER) optimization and multi-hour load flexibility with greater sophistication than other segments. Coupled with Topline Demand Control (TDC), which combines AI, model predictive control, a Grid-Edge DERMS, and forecasting software to optimize DERs at a granular level, grid operators can access reliable energy assets across a fleet of potential devices.

Small–Mid Business (SMB): Distributed, Diverse, and Ready for Scalable Aggregation

In contrast to large C+I, small–mid businesses (SMBs) represent thousands of smaller but collectively meaningful loads. They often have predictable hours, HVAC-centric load shapes, and increasingly widespread adoption of smart devices and cloud-managed building systems.

Who They Are

Small–mid businesses (SMBs) include:

• Grocery stores, restaurants, pharmacies, and convenience stores
• Hotels, motels, entertainment venues, and casinos
• Small offices, coworking spaces, clinics, and dental practices
• Breweries, small manufacturing, fabrication shops, and auto repair
• Schools, churches, libraries, and community facilities

Despite their size, these customers represent high potential because they respond exceptionally well to automation.

What These Customers Need

As the name implies, these operations are comparatively smaller and, as such, operate within tighter means. Because of that, SMBs tend to value:

• Low-touch automation: They lack dedicated energy managers.
• Simple, immediate ROI: Bills need to go down, fast.
• Minimal disruption to customers: Comfort and service must remain consistent.
• Turnkey enrollment: They prefer programs requiring little configuration.
• Clear communication: They want to know what is happening and why, in plain language.

Designing DER Programs That Work Across Both Segments

While Large C+I and SMBs differ significantly, several core design principles can support strong performance across both groups.

1. Meet customers where they are: Large C+I requires custom engineering, stakeholder planning, and load modeling. SMBs require simplicity and automation. Program pathways must reflect these needs.
2. Build for interoperability: Programs succeed when utilities can integrate batteries, thermostats, EV chargers, and HVAC controls from multiple OEMs into a single, consistent operational strategy.
3. Use automation as the backbone: Dispatch must be seamless. For SMBs, automation is essential. For Large C+I, it ensures predictable, pre-modeled outcomes.
4. Prioritize value alignment: Frame participation in ways that speak to each segment’s motivations:
   1. Large C+I: Resilience, reliability, precision, sustainability.
   2. SMBs: Savings, convenience, comfort.
5. Invest in long-term relationships: C+I customers are strategic partners. Transparent reporting, ongoing engagement, and clear expectations foster trust and stronger performance year over year.

Why C+I Segmentation Matters More Than Ever

Demand on the grid is rising faster than at any point in decades, driven by data centers, fleet electrification, heat pumps, AI, and expanded industrial activity. At the same time, utilities are under pressure to balance reliability, affordability, and decarbonization.

C+I customers—both large and small—are essential to meeting this challenge.

When utilities design DER and VPP programs around the specific needs of these customer groups, the results are powerful: more flexible capacity, stronger partnerships, greater resilience, and improved customer satisfaction.

As more devices come online, interoperability expands, and load flexibility becomes an operational necessity, C+I customers will play an increasingly central role in stabilizing the grid and accelerating the transition to a more affordable, dynamic, and decarbonized energy system.

About The Guest Author

Kathleen Van Gorden is a Senior Communications Strategist at DOER/MAKER, a forward-thinking marketing agency committed to driving innovation in the energy sector, and the founder of KVG Communications, a strategic communications and public relations firm for mission-driven organizations.