To reach net-zero goals, commercial and industrial (C&I) companies must move beyond just energy efficiency and adopt a two-pronged approach: adding renewables and enhancing flexibility. While efficiency measures remain a crucial first step, they often hit a plateau, making it impossible to achieve deep decarbonization without transitioning to clean energy sources and optimizing how and when energy is used. Therefore, we must change the paradigm and focus not only on what type of generation is built, but also where and how it is integrated.
The Global Push Beyond Efficiency
Traditional energy efficiency initiatives - such as switching to LED lighting, improving building insulation, and upgrading HVAC systems - have been effective at reducing consumption. More advanced steps like deploying heat pumps are helping C&I buildings replace inefficient fossil-fuel heating and cooling.
Yet these efforts alone are not enough to meet the net-zero targets of the coming decades. Today companies are focusing on two critical priorities:
- Renewable Energy Integration: Deploying on-site solar or wind and procuring renewable energy through power purchase agreements (PPAs). This directly reduces Scope 2 emissions.
- Grid and Energy System Flexibility: Actively managing demand and supply to align with intermittent renewables. This includes demand-side management (DSM), battery storage, and participation in virtual power plants (VPPs). Flexibility allows companies to consume power when it is cheapest and cleanest, and in some cases, provide services back to the grid.
As Enscryb is a global company, we take a global perspective. While the challenges of Net Zero are universal, they play out differently in each region:
The EU
The EU is pushing hard with policies such as the Net-Zero Industry Act, aimed at accelerating clean technology deployment and investment.
Challenges: A central hurdle is grid capacity and curtailment. In Germany, more than 8 TWh of wind power was curtailed in 2022 because transmission infrastructure could not carry energy from the windy north to industrial centers in the south. This highlights the urgent need for flexible solutions to maximize renewable output.
What Companies Are Doing: Many firms combine on-site generation with PPAs and are increasingly adopting storage. Industrial players are using VPPs to aggregate distributed resources, reduce curtailment, and provide flexibility services to the grid- turning a challenge into new revenue streams.
United States
Here in the US, market incentives and corporate leadership drive the transition, with the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act(IRA) providing a major boost - though its long-term future remains uncertain. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is also channeling billions into grid modernization and flexibility programs, adding another important layer of support.
Challenges: Supply chain complexity makes Scope 3 emissions difficult to measure and manage. High upfront costs for new technologies remain a barrier, particularly for SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). Curtailment is also a growing issue, especially in California and Texas where renewables frequently exceed transmission capacity. And while the IRA has catalyzed unprecedented clean energy investment, political debate around its future creates policy risk for long-dated projects. That uncertainty is forcing companies to weigh whether incentives will last the full life of their investments.
It is important to note that even with political uncertainty, several provisions remain viable today:
- The clean electricity tax credits are in force, giving developers and C&I buyers technology-neutral production and investment incentives.
- Direct pay and transferability provisions are active, enabling tax-exempt organizations and smaller developers to monetize credits.
- The standalone storage ITC is live, creating a strong business case for batteries that support flexibility.
- The DOE Loan Programs Office - continues to finance large-scale clean energy, grid upgrades, and even virtual power plant (VPP) projects.
- Under the IIJA, the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program is funding grid modernization, advanced conductors, and flexibility solutions through FY26.
Together, these programs provide near-term certainty even as the broader political outlook remains fluid.
- What Companies Are Doing: Leading corporates such as Microsoft and Walmart are going beyond their own operations to decarbonize supply chains. Many are leveraging IRA credits and transferability to scale renewables and storage, while also tapping into IIJA-backed grid resilience grants for local operations. Heavy investment in renewables is increasingly paired with emerging solutions such as Direct Air Capture (DAC). Flexibility is gaining traction as companies explore battery-backed PPAs and aggregated demand response, reducing exposure to grid volatility and curtailment risk.
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Australia
With abundant wind and solar, Australia has natural advantages but also systemic challenges.
- Challenges: A lack of long-term regulatory clarity and reliance on fossil exports complicate the transition. The legacy grid, built around coal-fired generation, requires major upgrades to handle intermittent renewables.
- What Companies Are Doing: Businesses are electrifying operations and installing rooftop solar, where Australia leads the world on a per-capita basis. Participation in battery and demand-response programs is growing, while carbon credits and land-based removal projects remain common for hard-to-abate sectors.
The Common Thread: Flexibility as the Missing Piece
Across regions, one theme is clear: efficiency and renewables alone will not get us to Net Zero. Without flexibility, curtailment will continue to waste clean energy, and the value of renewable investments will be undermined.
Where Enscryb Fits In
This is where Enscryb comes in. By combining digital twin simulation with real-time orchestration, Enscryb enables C&I customers, developers, and system operators to:
- Simulate how distributed resources (solar, storage, EV fleets, heat pumps) perform under different scenarios.
- Validate business cases for flexibility, reducing curtailment and unlocking stacked value streams.
- Execute projects with confidence, moving from simulation into live deployment with clear, data-driven strategies.
- Orchestrate resources in real time to ensure flexibility shows up when the grid and market need it most.
NetZero is a global challenge. Flexibility is the bridge - and Enscryb provides the tools to walk across it. We are unlocking the power of energy flexibility together.
