Energate reveals successful home energy pilots with OG&E and Ontario

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Quick Take: With all the press garnered by a few badly done pilots, it is nice to see results coming in from those that succeeded. Kudos to Oklahoma Gas & Electric and to its vendor partners Energate and Silver Spring Networks. Likewise to Ontario Power Authority.

As you skim the announcement from Energate below, be sure to notice that it achieved results in Oklahoma without time-of-use rates. It simply sent a "price signal" (I prefer the term "value signal") to consumers. Those consumers had previously programmed their systems to know when and whether to respond to those signals via OG&E's opt-in program.

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There's lots of angst around the need to implement dynamic pricing and the reluctance of regulators to do so. Some of the current pilots suggest we can achieve significant results without dynamic pricing, simply by using opt-in programs that can respond to value signals. – By Jesse Berst

Energate, Inc. released the results of two smart grid pilot projects, one in Oklahoma and another in Ontario, Canada, that gave the provider of residential demand response for utilities and home energy management solutions for their customers something to crow about.

In one project with Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), Energate's Pioneerâ„¢ Smart Thermostats made it possible for residential customers to get a peak reduction of 1.92 kilowatts per home which represents an average maximum of more than 50%, far above the 1.3 kilowatt goal. Also, those results were achieved solely with pricing signals where customers could opt-in and pick their own levels of participation. The price signals were sent with high reliability, which delivered the information to customers in a timely way.

Energate worked with Silver Spring Networks, a smart grid platform provider, and OG&E to deploy the technology that gave customers the ability to manage and optimize their energy use with in-home devices and/Internet portals that provided pricing and usage information.

And in Ontario...

More than 99% of Energate's online devices responded to load control signals, which met the advanced criteria of the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) pilot. "Thanks to Energate, I was able to log on to the Internet to control my thermostat settings and monitor my energy consumption," said participant John McKenzie, a Hamilton, Ontario, resident. "I was ultimately able to reduce my bills by about 30% without sacrificing home comfort whatsoever."

In another pilot with OPA, Energate deployed its Consumer-Connected Demand Response (CCDRâ„¢) solution to control home energy use through the Internet while giving customers access to smart meter data. The project incorporated smart thermostats on air conditioners, load control switches on water heaters and pool pumps and energy displays coupled with smart meters to provide real-time data. A Web-based portal allowed customers to program thermostats remotely to manage both home comfort and energy use.

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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