Polaris Grid
Software that balances renewable energy across local power grids in real time.
About Polaris Grid
Polaris Grid runs the control software that keeps solar, wind, and battery assets in sync with demand. As more generation moves to intermittent sources, grids need second-by-second decisions about where to store, draw, and route power. Polaris makes those decisions automatically, at a scale and speed no human control room can match.
The company was founded in 2016 by two grid engineers and a meteorologist who kept running into the same wall: renewable assets were being curtailed, meaning perfectly good clean energy was thrown away, simply because the software coordinating the grid was built for a world of predictable coal and gas plants. They set out to build the control layer the modern grid actually needs.
How the system works
Polaris ingests three streams of data continuously: high-resolution weather forecasts, live electricity market prices, and telemetry from every connected asset, down to individual inverters and battery cells. A forecasting engine predicts generation and demand on a rolling horizon from five minutes to seven days out, currently hitting 94% accuracy on day-ahead solar output.
On top of the forecast sits the dispatch engine. Every few seconds it answers the same question: given what we know right now, what should every asset on this grid be doing? Charge the batteries because a cloud bank is twenty minutes away. Discharge into the evening peak because prices are spiking. Curtail nothing unless physics demands it.
- 2.4 GW of generation and storage capacity under active management
- Real-time dispatch decisions across thousands of distributed assets
- Day-ahead and intraday market bidding, fully automated
- Single operations dashboard replacing a dozen vendor portals
- Open API for utilities to integrate with existing SCADA systems
Measured impact
Utilities running Polaris report curtailment reductions of 30 to 50% in their first year, which translates directly into revenue for asset owners and cleaner supply for the grid. Frequency stability during high-renewable periods improves measurably, meaning fewer fossil peaker plants get fired up to cover gaps. One regional operator estimated that Polaris displaced the equivalent of a mid-size gas plant's annual output in avoided peaker dispatch.
The bigger picture
Electrification is accelerating: heat pumps, electric vehicles, industrial processes moving off gas. All of it lands on grids that were never designed for two-way, weather-dependent power flows. Polaris exists to make that transition boring, in the best sense of the word: lights stay on, prices stay stable, and the share of clean energy keeps climbing without anyone noticing the complexity underneath.
Working with Hydra Labs
Hydra Labs designed and built the Polaris brand and web presence from the ground up, including an interactive grid visualization that became the centerpiece of their fundraising and sales conversations. The site helped the team close a Series C and land two national utility contracts.
Our vision
A grid that runs clean by default, not as an exception.