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By Jesse Berst

 

A new offering from communications provider Tantalus is an acknowledgment of a stealth trend. The company's "Dispatchable Conservation Voltage Regulation"-- already operating at Morristown Utility Systems -- takes conservation voltage reduction (CVR) and makes it "auto-dispatchable" so it can be used for instantaneous demand response.

 

CVR (and related voltage optimization approaches) have been around forever. They can reduce a utility's usage by 2 to 6%. But under most regulatory regimes, CVR also reduces the utility's revenues by a corresponding amount. As a result, few utilities have put it into practice.

 

Some utilities, however, have realized they can use voltage optimization in place of customer-based demand response. Rather than ask customers to use less energy at peak times, they simply reduce their own usage with CVR. Once the peak is past, they pump the voltage back up to previous levels, thereby protecting their revenues.

I think virtually every utility with smart meters should implement voltage optimization. Why engage in the fuss and muss of customer-based demand response if you can accomplish the same thing by tuning your own system?

 

Someday, I hope regulators everywhere will give utilities incentives for investing in efficiency. If that happened, utilities could afford to implement CVR full-time without lowering their own revenues. In the meantime, dispatchable voltage optimization seems dead obvious. Do you agree? Am I missing something? Stop by our discussion forum, where smart grid insiders are debating the pros and cons.

 

Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com. He consults to smart grid companies seeking market entry advice and M&A advisory. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the US and abroad, he also serves on the Advisory Council of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Energy & Environment directorate.

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