This startup just scored a deal to install a massive number of Tesla grid batteries

By Katie Fehren­bach­er: In California’s emerg­ing ener­gy stor­age indus­try, a new play­er is mak­ing a big impression.

A three-year-old, well-con­nect­ed San Fran­cis­co start­up has signed a con­tract to buy and install a whop­ping 500 megawatt hours worth of grid bat­ter­ies from Tes­la. That size of deal is the equiv­a­lent of installing tens of thou­sands of Tesla’s Pow­er­wall bat­ter­ies, many in Cal­i­for­nia, over the course of the next five years. The start­up is calledAdvanced Micro­grid Solu­tions and the com­pa­ny installs bat­ter­ies in build­ings and uses smart soft­ware to man­age the col­lec­tive bat­tery ener­gy to help util­i­ties bet­ter run the pow­er grid.

The com­pa­ny is led by co-founders Susan Kennedy and Jack­a­lyne Pfan­nen­stiel, who each have long his­to­ry in the ener­gy indus­try. Kennedy is the for­mer chief of staff to Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nors Arnold Schwarzeneg­ger and Gray Davis, and for­mer com­mis­sion­er for the Cal­i­for­nia Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion. Pfan­nen­stiel pre­vi­ous­ly chaired the Cal­i­for­nia Ener­gy Com­mis­sion, worked at util­i­ty PG&E for twen­ty years, and was the assis­tant sec­re­tary of the U.S. Navy in charge of ener­gy strat­e­gy. In addi­tion to Advanced Micro­grid Systems’s well-con­nect­ed founders, the com­pa­ny also has an impor­tant advisor—DBL Investors’ Man­ag­ing Part­ner Nan­cy Pfund, who was also an ear­ly investor in Tesla.

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