Critical Loop Helping LB Companies Stay on the Power Grid

For those concerned about the state’s electric power grid becoming overwhelmed by demand from data centers, electric vehicle charging, electronic devices and industry, keep in mind that your worries are quite realistic; especially given the age-old power grid infrastructure still in place that’s undergoing slow and gradual upgrades.

That’s where companies like Critical Loop have shown up to meet demand. Located at 4150 E. Donald Douglas Dr. in an office overlooking the Long Beach Airport, Critical Loop is an industrial power solutions company serving clients such as San Diego International Airport, residential home contractor Cover, and Terrawatt Infrastructure with its projects providing electric vehicle charging to truck fleets serving the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Founded in 2023, and based in Long Beach, the company was established by Bala Ramamurthy (CEO), Lydia Maher (CTO), and Andrew Grinalds (COO), with a focus on providing modular microgrids and on-demand power solutions to bypass traditional grid interconnection delays. When the grid has minimal capacity, the company’s Cygnus controller monitors the grid autonomously and pulls maximum power when available, and switches to batteries or generators when needed.

Critical Loop provides battery storage through its 1 MW battery system that can connect to on-site generation, and a software-defined power controller. The company is able to provide grid infrastructure and emerging sources of distributed generation – something that’s very much needed in Long Beach and across California as the growing business sector needs access to energy beyond what the utilities are able to provide. Critical Loop says that it is working with major utilities and regulatory agencies to bridge grid capacity gaps.

On April 13, the company announced it had secured a $26 million Series A round led by Conifer Infrastructure Partners and Hanover, with participation from Better Ventures, Climate Capital, Adapt Nation Capital, and Cyrus Ventures. That brought the total up to $49 million in committed equity and debt funding. Its work is also being supported by a supply agreement for US-made batteries with LG Energy Solution Vertech.

Critical Loop says that it built its CLB-5100 to support this larger system as utilities prepare for the next wave of industrial and digital infrastructure. The CLB-5100 is the flagship hardware component of Critical Loop’s energy platform, and it allows companies to bypass long-term utility grid interconnection queues and get power at a faster rate.

For the previously mentioned contracts, the first one is being carried out through winning a competitive bid to optimize onsite solar and batteries serving an 11 MW load at San Diego International Airport, which is the busiest single-runway airport in the U.S. Critical Loop will be keeping Cover’s manufacturing facility fully operational for eight months during a utility outage, if that were to happen. The company is also enabling Terawatt Infrastructure to secure flexible service connections for over 4 MW of incremental capacity across two EV charging sites. That will be carried out in just a few months, instead of Terawatt having to wait years for utility buildout. There will also be two hybrid microgrids that can be deployed at Mojave test facilities within days of notice.

Space Beach Expanding

Critical Loop is one of several advanced technology and aerospace companies that has moved to, or expanded within, the business hub in Douglas Park, now called “Space Beach.” Companies like Anduril Industries, Relativity Space, Vast, SpaceX and JetZero are based here, converting former aircraft manufacturing hangars into high-tech hubs for space and defense innovation.

Critical Loop says that its team of engineers and operators have come from SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir and Rivian. The company gained prominence in early 2026, with Mayor Rex Richardson highlighting their work as a Long Beach-based company in his Grow Long Beach presentations and confirming they are expanding their operations there.

“In just a couple of years, we’ve built a software and hardware stack that has the potential to accelerate time to power from years to days, and with this team, we believe we can keep doing things that were previously considered impossible,” said Ramamurthy in a press release. “The caliber of people we have attracted makes me confident about what we’ll build next.”

Businesses and utilities across the U.S. typically wait for years for permanent grid infrastructure upgrades before they can connect or expand. Critical Loop’s approach brings together flexible interconnection with microgrids to close that gap to days or weeks. The company combines battery storage, generation, and Cygnus, its software-defined power controller, into a single deployable platform, Critical Loop says.

French multinational corporation Schneider Electric also provides similar services in the city of Long Beach. In 2018, the company signed an agreement with the Port of Long Beach to design, engineer and build a new microgrid that is now enabling critical energy resilience at the port.

The company continues working with the port on this microgrid technology demonstration which includes an integrated system of distributed energy resources (DER) and microgrid controls, enabling added resilience via long-term islanding at the port’s critical response facility, the Joint Command and Control Center (JCCC), which functions as the port’s hub for security.

Schneider Electric’s $5.2 million contract with the Port was part of a $7.1 million project that is partially funded by a $5 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Schneider Electric has also been working with Long Beach City College and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The company has been working with the union to strengthen local workforce development and training initiatives, in addition to providing paid, on-the-job training to apprentices during construction.

Jon LeSage is a resident of Long Beach and a veteran business media reporter and editor. You can reach him at jtlesage1@yahoo.com.