Efficiency Maine Small Battery Program

At a glance

Flip is a contracted aggregator in Efficiency Maine's Small Battery Program and enrolls about three-quarters of all participating systems. In its first season, Flip's fleet answered every event the program called, across every major Maine utility territory.

The challenge

Maine wants homes with batteries to help cut peak costs on the regional grid. Efficiency Maine launched the Small Battery Program in 2026 to pay homeowners for sharing stored energy when demand peaks.

The program asks a lot of an aggregator:

• Frequent, long events. Events last three hours, come at least twice a month and up to 60 times a year, at any time of year.
• Pay for performance. Homeowners earn up to $180 per kW each year based on their average output across all events, so every underperforming dispatch costs the customer.
• A fragmented utility map. Customers are spread across Central Maine Power, Versant Power and a long tail of co-ops and municipal utilities, each with its own account formats.
• Mixed hardware. Batteries in Maine homes come from many manufacturers, from Tesla Powerwalls to many other brands.
• A short runway. The program went from launch to its first events in a matter of weeks.

What Flip did

Flip had enrollment open on April 1 and dispatched the program's first event three weeks later, then kept adding hardware and homes through the season.

A partner in building the program. Flip worked closely with the Efficiency Maine and CLEAResult teams from design through launch. That meant helping shape the program's rules and enrollment process, then putting them into practice: the data exchange, event workflows and reporting that let the program run day to day.

Bringing manufacturers in. Flip promoted the program to battery manufacturers and channel partners, walking them through how it works and onboarding them onto Flip's platform so their customers could join.

Twelve brands and counting. Flip has set up 12+ manufacturers and channel partners in the program, including Duracell, EcoFlow, EG4, Fortress, Sigenergy, Tesla and Tigo.

Supporting homeowners. Flip is a point of contact for homeowners in the program, answering questions during enrollment and helping customers through events and payments.

Enrollment through any channel. Homeowners enroll through apps branded for their battery manufacturer, or directly with Flip. Flip exchanges enrollment files with Efficiency Maine over a secure, automated connection, so the administrator sees one clean roster.

Automated dispatch. Efficiency Maine's event notices are ingested automatically and turned into battery commands across every brand. Flip pre-charges each battery before the event so it starts full.

Customer payments. Flip pays homeowners their program incentives directly through its Tremendous integration at the end of each program year, so Efficiency Maine never manages payouts for Flip's customers.

Outcomes

In its first program season, Flip became Efficiency Maine's largest battery aggregator and delivered on every event called.

• About three-quarters of the program. Flip enrolls roughly 75% of all systems in the Small Battery Program.
• Live in three weeks. Enrollment opened April 1, 2026, and Flip's fleet answered its first event on April 22.
• 25+ events, 100% participation. Since April 2026, Flip has dispatched more than 25 three-hour events, and no homeowner opted out of a single one.

Why it matters for other utilities

Utilities and program administrators launching a battery program need enrollment fast, across whatever hardware their customers own, without building the plumbing themselves. Flip showed it can stand up a statewide program in weeks and become its largest participant within a season.

Flip also works as a partner to the program team, not only as a vendor: helping design the program, recruiting manufacturers into it, and taking care of the customers it enrolls.