Powering What's Next: Building an Enernet for the High-Demand Energy Era
As electrification accelerates and artificial intelligence drives unprecedented energy demand, industry leaders are reimagining how electricity is generated, distributed, and consumed. During the webinar Powering What’s Next: Hybrid AC Microgrids for a High-Demand Energy Era, experts from Emerge Alliance, New Sun Road, ABB, and The Sun Company Americas explored how hybrid AC/DC microgrids are reshaping the energy landscape and creating a more resilient, flexible grid.
At the center of the conversation was the concept of the “Enernet,” a decentralized approach that mirrors the architecture of the internet itself. Rather than relying solely on massive, centralized infrastructure, the Enernet envisions interconnected microgrids that can operate independently or collaborate with one another. This distributed model offers a practical pathway to add capacity, improve resilience, and bring energy resources closer to where they are needed most.
Adrienne Pierce, CEO of New Sun Road, emphasized that microgrids are no longer emerging technologies. “Microgrids are fully mature, field-proven technologies,” she explained, pointing to their long history in mission-critical applications. Through New Sun Road’s Stellar platform, the company manages more than 1,500 technology-agnostic power systems operating both on-grid and off-grid, demonstrating the versatility and reliability of modern microgrid solutions.
Pierce highlighted the speed and adaptability that make microgrids so valuable today. They can be rapidly deployed to address local capacity constraints, automate demand response, and provide resilience in regions vulnerable to grid disruptions, including areas affected by wildfire-related power shutoffs. Equally important, microgrids give utilities a modular approach to expanding grid capacity and managing growing interconnection requests with greater confidence.
As the discussion turned to direct current (DC) technologies, Pierce encouraged a practical, collaborative perspective. “Approaching this transition as an ‘us versus them’ battle is counterproductive,” she said. Instead, she advocated for implementing DC where it makes the most sense, particularly in applications such as telecommunications and computing, where both generation and end-use technologies already operate natively on DC power.
The webinar also underscored the massive opportunity emerging around data centers and AI infrastructure. Energy-intensive computing facilities increasingly require flexible, resilient power systems capable of handling rapidly changing loads. Hybrid AC/DC microgrids, integrated with energy storage and intelligent controls, can transform these facilities from large power consumers into grid-interactive assets that contribute to overall system stability.
Pierce also offered a candid assessment of today’s utility landscape, noting that many utilities are overwhelmed by growing interconnection queues and aging infrastructure. Yet her comments carried an optimistic message: distributed energy solutions can help relieve these pressures. By leveraging standardized communications protocols and proven control platforms, companies like New Sun Road are making microgrids easier to deploy, replicate, and integrate across diverse energy systems.
The webinar’s central message was clear: meeting the demands of a high-energy future will require innovation, collaboration, and a willingness to rethink traditional approaches. Through its Stellar platform and its commitment to technology-agnostic, community-focused solutions, New Sun Road is helping build the foundation of the Enernet, proving that resilient, distributed energy systems are not merely concepts for the future, but practical tools already powering what’s next.