A New Kind of Power Company Will Put a Battery in Every Home

Texas is an obvious place to start a power company. The state began deregulating its energy industry more than 25 years ago and has since emerged as a leader in wind and solar power, as well as in new economic models for selling electricity. At the same time, population growth, industrial expansion and climate change have recently pushed Texas’ grid to—and sometimes past—its limit. None of these trends are likely to ease up anytime soon. The stress on Texas’ grid will almost certainly worsen with every new electric car that hits the road, every artificial intelligence data center built and every manufacturing hub that gets constructed.

These conditions have given rise to Base Power Inc., a company co-founded last year in Austin by Zach Dell, son of the personal computer billionaire Michael Dell. Base is a home electricity provider designed for a distressed grid. “We believe the existing power grid is broken,” says Dell, who’s also the company’s chief executive officer. “It’s outdated, severely undersized and poorly maintained. This unfortunately leads to unreliable power and volatile prices for customers.”