Energy Transition Theater: How Intelligent Microgrid Control Increases OPEX Savings in Texas

Texas is experiencing unprecedented growth in electricity demand driven by AI and datacenter development within the ERCOT market. While microgrids are increasingly deployed to address reliability and cost challenges, operational performance depends largely on how distributed energy resources are controlled in real time. This session provides a practical introduction to how modern microgrid controllers operate and how intelligent control strategies improve resiliency, operational efficiency, and economic performance for datacenters and other commercial use cases. The session explains how forecasting, optimization, and Model Predictive Control (MPC) enable real-time coordinated operation of solar PV, battery energy storage, and backup generation under dynamic grid and market conditions.