Demand Response (DR) technologies allow utilities to talk to devices inside the customer premise. They include such things as load control devices, smart thermostats and home energy consoles. They are essential to allow customers to reduce or shift their power use during peak demand periods. Demand response solutions play a key role in several areas: pricing, emergency response, grid reliability, infrastructure planning and design, operations, and deferral.
Results: 209 results found. You are on page 1 of 9 pages.
In an effort to develop smart grid solutions for the Chevrolet Volt, OnStar is inviting utilities, energy companies and others to take advantage of a set of its application programming interfaces to develop new apps for Volt owners. Click inside to learn what OnStar is looking for from developers.
An announcement today related to Pennsylvanian demand response has implications far beyond that state. The use of incentives and targeting midsize commercial are just two of the emerging trends we think you'll be interested in.
Energate has been contracted by the province of Ontario to deploy its residential demand response solutions as part of a province-wide program intended to reduce demand during peak load periods – and participating consumers also are expected to benefit from energy-saving tools and technology.
Aclara and Calico Energy Services put their heads together and have come up with an innovative approach to demand-side programs that is, as SGN's Jesse Berst sees it, more powerful and more simple. Get more on the story inside.
What's the application that will take smart grid over the top? That will make it seem as obvious, inevitable and valuable as the Internet seems to us today? Some say it's demand response, some say voltage optimization, some say customer empowerment. What do YOU say? That's this week's Tuesday Topic in our discussion forum.
Honeywell has been signed to launch China's first smart grid demand response project. The company will demonstrate its automated demand response technology at office buildings, government and commercial facilities and industrial plants to reduce demand during peak load conditions.
In today's Discovery Showcase installment, SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst introduces a Silicon Valley startup and its first smart grid mission: to build a better, more integrated demand response. Click to learn how AutoGrid intends to lower the cost of demand response by 90% while increasing efficiency 30%.
Earlier this year FERC approved a request by the PJM Interconnection to allow for small-scale assets down to 100 kW to participate in frequency regulation applications. The move opened the door for Viridity Energy and Enbala Power Networks to initiate demand-side regulation projects that could respond to grid signals on a second-by-second basis. What does it mean for traditional DR and energy storage? Brian Warshay of Lux Research offers a perspective.
Africa's largest electricity provider has picked Comverge to create and co-manage the continent's first open market for demand response resources. There's more inside about this important pilot project.
Utilities around the country will want to keep a close eye on the progress of NV Energy's smart grid project. As a piece of that, the Nevada utility is taking an intriguing approach to encourage customers to enroll in demand response and dynamic pricing. Click inside for more on NV Energy's "big carrot" strategy.
A new study from The Brattle Group anticipates energy efficiency programs are going to catch on so fast that they will cause peak electricity demand to dip significantly from previous forecasts. Click inside to learn what else the Brattle economists are bullish on.
Today demand response might get called 15 times per year (if that). Someday, in theory, DR may be responsive enough to be called 15 times per minute, allowing it to be used for regulation. Sounds like we have a long ways to go. But what if we told you a Toronto company is doing it today? At scale? Click inside to read about the breakthrough from Enbala Power Networks.
Curtailing electricity demand in a society that can't buy all the latest electronic gizmos fast enough? In a world that needs to keep the wheels of industry churning out all of those gizmos - and providing jobs? A reader made the point the other day that we might be better off promoting energy innovation over curtailing demand. What do you think? It's this week's topic in our discussion forum. Please join in.
Earlier this month we shared some pretty dismal news about smart grid market forecasts and the financial challenges facing smart grid startups. So it's only fair to share the flip-side when we can. Click inside for two and a half good news tales from the smart grid front – including one about a smart grid company that's seen a whopping 1,069% revenue growth over the past five years.
Honeywell will conduct the first automated demand response pilot project for commercial and industrial facilities in Europe for Scottish and Southern Energy. The project will zero in on giving Scottish and Southern the capability of reducing or shifting energy use temporarily to accommodate power demand spikes. Read more inside.
The Brattle Group's Ahmad Faruqui and co-author Jenny Palmer explore (and explode) the myths of dynamic pricing in a paper due for publication soon. He gave SGN permission to provide you with a sneak preview – and we've extracted what we consider the two most dangerous myths. Get the details inside.
In this article, the authors assess the top seven myths about residential dynamic pricing by accessing an international database of dynamic rate experiments that has been compiled by The Brattle Group, D-Rex, which contains empirical data on customer response drawn from 109 tests that have been carried out during the past decade across North America, Europe and Australia.
Volt-VAR optimization is a hot topic in utility circles, but as Jared Green of EPRI and Don Parker of Alabama Power point out, the VVO mode that is most promising for one utility may not make the most sense for another. They've sorted it out for us inside.
As robust as the energy efficiency sector is right now from an investment standpoint, we've got it on good authority that the sector could absolutely explode in the next few months. Click inside to learn why Cascadia Capital CEO Michael Butler believes energy efficiency has come of age – and what that means.
Jesse Berst's latest insider conversation helped him understand the three major barriers to connecting smart buildings to the smart grid. Those companies that get around these barriers first will win the prize that awaits. But only one of those barriers – the technology piece – is getting any airplay. Jump inside to read about all three.
We are on the cusp of a major upswing in grid-connected building automation and SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst believes this wave of change will either hurt or help utilities, depending on how they prepare. Click inside for more on this important topic and Jesse's recent discussions with executives at Johnson Controls, the $34 billion building automation giant now moving aggressively into demand response.
Toronto's ENBALA Power Networks has completed an alternative technologies trial with Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator that successfully demonstrated how its technology can give regulation service to system operators by developing a network of large demand-side assets.
As the record-breaking heat wave continues in the central and eastern half of the country, it's creating record-breaking electricity demand. As SGN Chief Analyst Jesse Berst notes, utilities with demand response capabilities are seeing them put to the test for real.
The National Demand Response Directory launched this week includes information on more than 450 demand response program providers and over 1,300 DR programs throughout the country. Click inside for more on this new smart grid reference guide.
SGN's Jesse Berst found the recently released Implementation Proposal for the National Action Plan on Demand Response "uninspired." Click inside to read why, and for commentary from two expert insiders on critical components missing from the plan.
Natural gas is getting so cheap that it may become cheaper and faster to slap up a gas-fired peaking plant than to implement a complicated demand response or renewable project - two of the biggest drivers of a smart grid. Yikes! Will natural gas alternatives make the smart grid too expensive by comparison? That's this week's Tuesday Topic in our discussion forum. Please join in.