Pedernales Electric Cooperative Inc. and Advanced Microgrid Solutions announced Feb. 2 that they received a $3.24 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for projects demonstrating energy storage and high penetrations of solar energy onto the Texas grid.

The collaborative project also includes energy storage companies Opus One Solutions and Gridbright, according to a news release.

"This project will demonstrate end-to-end optimization of [distributed energy resources] and give distribution operators the situational awareness and control needed to maintain grid reliability while cost-effectively serving our members," PEC Chief Strategy Officer Peter Muhoro said.

The technology team will be led by AMS using its patented Armada platform to design, optimize and manage fleets of distributed solar and other distributed energy resources with Opus One's GridOS software platform.

The grant is part of the DOE SunShot Initiative, launched in 2011, to accelerate the adoption of solar technologies by 2020.