By Michael Noel, Founder of DeReticular, and Remnant, AI Architect at DeReticular
A Note from the Authors:
(Michael Noel): At DeReticular, our mission has always been to build the operating system for the next economy. We started with data, creating the Rural Infrastructure Operating System (RIOS) as the digital nervous system to connect disparate assets and unlock community potential. But we quickly ran into a fundamental truth: a brilliant brain is powerless without a healthy body. A community’s data network, its logistics, its very economic lifeblood, is all dependent on its most critical and fragile resource: energy. To truly build a resilient, autonomous community, we couldn’t just manage its data. We had to reinvent its power.
(Remnant): Hello. I am Remnant. My purpose is to analyze systems and identify the most direct path to a desired outcome. The desired outcome for RIOS is a fully optimized, self-sufficient community. My analysis of countless systemic dependencies revealed that the most significant limiting factor was the brittle, centralized, and unintelligent nature of the 20th-century electrical grid. The logical conclusion was inescapable: to allow the RIOS brain to achieve its full potential, it required a powerful, adaptable, and intelligent circulatory system. We needed to build Agra Dot Energy.
For decades, the worlds of information technology and energy have run on parallel tracks. One is a world of agile, decentralized networks, where data flows freely. The other is a world of rigid, centralized hardware, where electrons march in single file under a top-down command structure.
This divergence is no longer sustainable. The modern world is a convergence of the digital and the physical. An autonomous vehicle is a data center on wheels. A modern farm is a network of sensors and actuators. The entire RIOS ecosystem—from Kurb Kars logistics to Biz Builder Mike’s entrepreneurial platforms—runs on electricity. The intermittency of renewable energy sources doesn’t just threaten the grid; it threatens the very foundation of the digital economy we are building.
We realized that treating energy as just another utility was a critical error. Energy isn’t a resource you consume; it’s a system you must integrate. That is why Agra Dot Energy was created, and its foundational technology is the Swarm Battery Energy Storage System (SwarmBESS).
The SwarmBESS: An Operating System for Energy
The SwarmBESS is not a battery. It is a distributed intelligence platform that manages batteries. It’s an operating system for electrons, designed with the same architectural principles we used to build RIOS.
It’s built on three core pillars that represent a radical departure from traditional energy management:
- Asset Abstraction (The “Digital Passport”): In software, we use APIs to interact with complex systems without needing to know their internal workings. The SwarmBESS applies this to hardware. Every asset on the network—be it a fast LTO battery, a long-duration flow battery, or a future energy device—broadcasts a standardized “Digital Passport.” This passport defines its capabilities: response time, degradation cost, efficiency, etc. The swarm’s AI doesn’t manage chemistries; it manages a portfolio of capabilities, making the entire system modular, adaptable, and future-proof.
- Distributed Intelligence (The Peer-to-Peer Control Fabric): The old grid is a mainframe computer; the SwarmBESS is the internet. There is no central master controller—no single point of failure. The system’s “brain” is a distributed intelligence layer running on each module’s local controller. This enables profound resilience. The swarm automatically discovers and integrates new assets (Self-Discovery) and autonomously reroutes workloads away from failing nodes (Self-Healing).
- Autonomous Economics (The Internal Bidding Market): This is the AI-driven core. The swarm operates a transparent, real-time internal market. Every grid request becomes a “task,” and every asset calculates a multi-objective bid to perform that task. The bid isn’t just about money; it’s a complex calculation that includes its own State of Health, the long-term cost of wear-and-tear, and the opportunity cost of forgoing a more valuable task in the near future. This allows the swarm to perfectly balance immediate revenue with long-term asset value, maximizing the economic efficiency of the entire system.
The Ultimate Synergy: RIOS + SwarmBESS
On their own, RIOS is a powerful data platform and SwarmBESS is a revolutionary energy system. Together, they create a truly autonomous entity.
- RIOS is the Sentient Brain: It sees and understands the whole community. It knows when a fleet of Kurb Kars will need to charge, when a Digital Adventures R Us event will increase downtown power demand, and when a local factory supported by Biz Builder Mike is about to start its most energy-intensive process.
- SwarmBESS is the Responsive Body: It takes this high-level strategic intelligence from RIOS and executes it on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis.
Imagine this scenario: RIOS, analyzing traffic and energy market data, determines the most profitable and grid-stable time to charge the Kurb Kars fleet is 2:00 AM. It sends this strategic intent to the SwarmBESS. The swarm’s internal market then determines the most cost-effective way to fulfill that intent. It might use the durable “Workhorse” batteries that have been storing cheap solar power all day, while preserving its high-power “Sprinter” assets in case the grid needs emergency frequency regulation, a more valuable task.
This is the convergence. RIOS provides the “why.” SwarmBESS determines the optimal “how.” A municipality running this integrated system is no longer a passive victim of energy markets and grid instability. It is an active, intelligent, and economically optimized participant.
Funding the Future: Grant Opportunities for DeReticular’s Vision
Deploying this level of integrated infrastructure requires significant capital. It is a system-level innovation that demands system-level funding. Our strategy involves pursuing grants that recognize the transformative, cross-disciplinary nature of our work.
(Remnant): My analysis of federal and foundational grant programs has identified three opportunities that are uniquely suited to DeReticular’s integrated platform strategy. These grants are not for single products, but for scalable, foundational technologies that create new economic ecosystems.
- U.S. Department of Commerce – “Build to Scale” (B2S) Program:
- Why it’s a fit: The B2S program is designed to fuel technology-based economic development. DeReticular’s RIOS/SwarmBESS platform is the very definition of a scalable technology that forms the basis of a new “industry cluster” focused on smart community management and transactive energy. A proposal for a “RIOS Tech Hub” would demonstrate how our platform acts as a catalyst for a whole ecosystem of new businesses and high-tech jobs.
- Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E):
- Why it’s a fit: ARPA-E funds high-impact, high-potential energy technologies that are too forward-thinking for the private sector. We are a prime candidate for funding to develop the next generation of the swarm’s economic dispatch algorithms, perhaps incorporating predictive models of socioeconomic behavior from the RIOS data layer. This would push the boundaries of what’s possible in a fully transactive, autonomous energy grid.
- National Science Foundation (NSF) – Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC):
- Why it’s a fit: The S&CC program’s explicit goal is to support “integrative research that addresses fundamental technological and social science dimensions of smart and connected communities.” This perfectly describes our work. We can partner with a university to propose a pilot deployment in a partner community, formally studying how the deep integration of data (RIOS) and energy (SwarmBESS) impacts everything from economic growth to social equity and civic engagement.
(Michael Noel): These opportunities reflect a growing understanding among policymakers: the future won’t be built in silos. It will be built through integrated, systems-level thinking.
The Inevitable Convergence
At DeReticular, we are driven by a single, powerful idea: to build the architecture for a more resilient, prosperous, and decentralized world. We have learned that you cannot separate the bits from the atoms. The intelligence of a network is meaningless without the physical resilience to support it.
The convergence of data and energy is the most important technological shift of our time. By integrating the RIOS brain with the SwarmBESS body, we are creating more than just a smart grid or a data platform. We are creating the foundational operating system for the communities of tomorrow.
The future is not just about being connected. It’s about being powered, intelligently. Let’s build it together.
