The CORD Report · No. 01

The state of cooperative grid flexibility.

What 55+ distribution and G&T cooperatives are running into as they build and run DER flexibility programs.

850+
Electric co-ops in the US
55+
Co-ops contributing to the CORD report
300k+
Devices in one DER program

Read the report.

What's inside

“We have over 20 member co-ops, each with different battery brands across their territories. Our biggest challenge to launching a battery program was navigating the OEMs.”

  1. Executive summary

    Cooperatives have long been quiet leaders in grid technology, but lean operations cut both ways as data and member expectations arrive faster than staffs were built to handle.

  2. Paying for edge DERMS

    Pricing models built on per-OEM and per-device fees don't fit the cooperative model of serving every member. How co-ops are thinking about the math.

  3. Proving the savings

    Demonstrating program savings to membership and the board when device counts, territory mix, dispatch assumptions are incomplete, skewed, or inaccessible.

  4. One shared view of the territory

    Helping operators, program teams, and engineering teams see the same territory when the tools they have don't connect.

CORD Report — Edition 01, Summer 2026 cover.

Inside Edition 01

Cooperatives have long been quiet leaders in grid technology. But scale cuts both ways as the grid gets more complex.

  • Drawn from monthly CORD working sessions, not outside analysis
  • Real pricing, savings, and tooling problems co-ops are working through
  • What worked, what didn't, from the members who lived it