PLMA Load Management Dialogue

Learn how Evergy created and implemented a strategic plan to transition 550,000 Missouri residential customers to time-based plans in less than one year's time. Evergy had just six months to develop, test, and implement a highly technical, highly complex, multi-channel digital education initiative and ten months overall to begin converting customers. Partnering with Oracle, their plan, implementation, and results were recognized by the Missouri PSC for setting a new standard for utility time-based plan transitions. Join us to learn how they accomplished this transition, and what lessons and best practices were learned by all, as a result.

In October 2022, the government of Ontario in Canada issued a directive to its Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to increase investments in energy efficiency and demand management; the lowest-cost ways of meeting system needs. These increased investments enabled additional demand-side management programming, including the "Save on Energy Peak Perks" program. Close coordination between the IESO, service provider EnergyHub, and partners including ecobee and Renew Home (formerly Google Nest) was essential to delivering rapid scale for the Peak Perks program.The result? Ontario IESO built Canada's largest VPP in just six months with the capacity to deliver a peak demand reduction of up to 90 MW, equivalent to taking a mid-sized Canadian city off the grid during peak times. Join us to learn more about how this program was developed and launched so quickly and effectively, as well as its lessons learned.

Avista used Bidgely's UtilityAI Platform to validate expectations about their EV customers, helping to drive equitable electrification for all, including low income communities. Join us to learn more about how Bidgely helped Avista reduce high-bill-investigation truck rolls by 27% in the first year; improve customer engagement/satisfaction; enhance EV grid planning; and save hundreds of hours of employee workload. The platform also helped Avista's grid planning teams as they evaluated the impact of EV adoption over time. We'll explore Avista's implementation, results, and lessons learned. 

This panel will explore the intricacies of orchestrating electric vehicle managed charging programs and how automakers, electric vehicle supply equipment manufacturers, software providers, and utilities interact and promote effective programs. Drawing from lessons learned and experiences to date, the discussion will focus on managing EV charging to mitigate transformer overloading, avoid feeder upgrades, and improve energy usage across the grid.

The pending deadline for the SEC's new reporting requirements around Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals adds a new layer of complexity for all publicly traded organizations, including utilities. Accurately reporting decarbonization, DR/DER results, environmental stewardship, and community engagement will require new data collection approaches and analysis. Learn how the energy industry can accelerate its progress toward both achieving and reporting its ESG goals.Speakers:Greg Chafee, Partner, Thompson HineTanya Nesbitt, Partner, Thompson HineMcGee Young, CEO and Founder, WattCarbonSydnie Hinds, Principal Investor Relations Analyst, Portland General ElectricScott Coe, CEO, Grid OptimizeRoss Malme, Senior Advisor, Kitu Systems

Delivering a successful utility EV program, whether focused on adoption or managed charging, requires coordination across several different stakeholders, including the utility, utility vendors, and OEMs. Often, car dealerships are ignored due to their unique structure and their relatively new engagement with utility programs. This session will discuss specific barriers car dealerships face within the transition to EVs and strategies utilities can use to engage dealerships and potentially smooth the EV buying experience.

The way customers use energy is changing in fundamental ways.  Home energy technology - electric vehicles, air conditioners, solar and storage - can be a headache for utilities and grids, but active load management can unlock great value for customers and utilities.London-based Octopus Energy is a leading energy supplier with over 7,700,000 customers worldwide, across the UK, US, Europe, and APAC. It is at the forefront of domestic load shift, launching its first time-of-use tariffs in 2018. It launched "Intelligent Octopus" in 2021, a product for actively managing customer demand and saving several hundred dollars per customer per year. Intelligent Octopus, powered by Kraken's SmartFlex platform, has grown to become the world's largest managed charging fleet, consisting of 140,000 connected devices, equivalent to 900MW of controllable load.In this Load Management Dialogue, Octopus will share its journey creating customer products around load shifting, how it applies this in the US and other countries, and learnings for mobilizing greater amounts of connected load.

Wood Mackenzie has estimated the U.S. could have up to 380GW of DERs connected to the grid as soon as 2025, which represents tens of millions of new DERs. PLMA has invited two industry experts to help us explore the outlook for 2024, including opportunities and challenges they will be watching closely in the year ahead. Join us to learn more about: policy and regulatory changes that may affect DR and DERsthe role of VPPs in meeting peak demandthe evolving role of utilitiesthe growing impact of EVsaccounting for decarbonizationthe influence of global events and more!

"With electricity demand growing for the first time in a decade and fossil assets retiring, deploying 80-160 GW of virtual power plants (VPPs)—tripling current scale—by 2030 could support rapid electrification while redirecting grid spending from peaker plants to participants and reducing overall grid costs.“Jen Downing from the Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office will present key insights from the recently published VPP Liftoff Report. This will include the current state of VPPs in the U.S., the role VPPs can play in a modernizing grid, and priority solutions to accelerate growth. The session will also cover DOE programs that can support VPP projects, with a deep-dive on the >$300 billion in financing authorities of the Loan Programs Office. 

Meet Lee Krevat, a former utility executive with SDG&E and current CEO of Krevat Energy Innovations. Lee hosts a podcast titled “The Climate Champions” in which he discusses the planet's future with a variety of leaders who are engaged in the fight to mitigate climate change. Each episode includes a discussion of his guest's actions and initiatives, the forces that drive them to make a difference, and their vision for what's next.In this engaging session, Lee Krevat will discuss a variety of issues and opportunities with our panel, addressing the mitigating the impacts of climate change in the near and more distant future with PLMA Leaders Ross Malme, Past PLMA Chair, of Malme Energy Solutions; Michael Brown, Past PLMA Chair, of NV Energy; and Jenny Roehm, Executive Committee Member, of Schneider Electric.

Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) received PLMA's Technology Pioneer Award this Spring for their work partnering with rooftop solar customers to accelerate their transition to the renewable grid of the future. The Wattsmart Battery Program innovation journey started in 2017 as a partnership between the utility (RMP),  local developer and RMP customer The Wasatch Group, and Sonnen, a battery manufacturer. Together, they worked through policy and technical constraints to install over 600 batteries powered by solar to supply electricity to a 600-unit apartment complex called Soleil Lofts. The scalable Wattsmart Battery Program includes:Development of a Battery Grid Management System (BGMS) in partnership with Sonnen that allows RMP to connect with and dispatch customer-owned batteries to keep the power grid stable and avoid power outages.A BGMS that's connected to the western energy grid and automatically reacts in real-time (within 50 seconds), based on system needs. A Virtual Power Plant resource in partnership with Sonnen that allows thousands of small batteries to be controlled as a group, transforming distributed residential solar power into the equivalent of one large power plant resource.Join us to learn more about this innovative program, RMP's lessons learned, and its recommendations for others working on solar and battery initiatives.

Salt River Project (SRP) DR program has over 67,000 devices providing 82 MW of load flexibility, and sometimes much more. During a single event in the summer of 2022, the program delivered 133 MW of first-hour load shift, ensuring grid resilience when it was needed most. The reliability and scale of this resource has led operators and resource planners to view DR as part of the resource stack and a key component of SRP's decarbonization goals.Multi-family, business, and limited- and moderate-income households historically have not been included in DR programs, however, SRP calculated that this important and untapped customer segment represents approximately 200,000-300,000 households and 28,000 businesses, making it clear that investing in these communities would deliver benefits to both SRP and its customers.SRP developed marketing campaigns and a program design to overcome barriers that have prevented these segments from engaging in demand response. Barriers addressed include the complexity of installations in multifamily buildings, plus financial and awareness challenges among traditionally marginalized communities.In the year ahead, SRP plans to continue to grow DR Program participation within multi-family, SMB, and historically marginalized communities. The utility anticipates exceeding 85,000 devices enrolled and 150 MW load shed potential by the end of 2023.

Gaining Maryland Public Service Commission approval in March of 2022, the SMECO FlexTemp Pilot moved quickly to stand up a flexible load management program directly associated with the management of smart thermostats, during both the cooling and heating seasons. The approach taken for the program was presented during PLMA's Spring 2022 Conference and was titled “Revenue and Emission Benefits of Managing Thermostats on a Sub-hourly Basis”.The FlexTemp Pilot builds on SMECO's innovative approach to utilizing smart thermostats, dating back to 2015, as one of the first utilities to provide incentives to customers for the installation of smart thermostats.The FlexTemp Pilot achieved considerable success in 2022 and proves it's possible to manage behind-the-meter assets as grid resources, and that devices can also support decarbonization goals and plans. Additional impacts include:The ability to group cohort members and schedule dispatches on a day-ahead basis.Development of procedures to group cohort members and schedule dispatches on a real-time basisLearning customer behavior, which allows for seasonality of customer cohorting.Optimization of members enrolled to dispatch events to achieve firm service levels.Optimization of members enrolled to dispatch events to achieve guaranteed load drop.Events called based on optimization of energy savingsEvents called based on optimization of capacity savingsEvents called based on optimization of GHG emission reductionAbility to dispatch on a real-time basis instead of day ahead basisMembers enrolled = 250+ with the expectation of exceeding 1,000+ by May 2023.Reduced member opt-out rate in comparison with traditional DR programs (~1.5% as compared to ~25%)kW/member saved on average per event: 1 kW

Time-of-use (TOU) and other innovative rate designs are critical to managing an increasingly complex grid, achieving decarbonization goals, and integrating DERs. To achieve meaningful results, more energy customers need to adopt them. Southern California Edison (SCE) wanted to get its customers on new rates in a way that ensured a positive experience and delivered impact to the business. The utility's transition began with an opt-in pilot in July 2016 and a default pilot of 400k customers in 2018. The full TOU rollout started in Oct 2020 and ran through June 2022, with over 1.9M customers defaulted. SCE knew that managing a program of this scale would require an analytics-driven approach and a focus on putting customers first. The result of its approach was strong engagement and an added benefit: significant peak load reduction in August 2022, making it equivalent to the third largest program in SCE's DR line up. During the summer of 2022, SCE used its innovative Rate Coach Program, powered by Oracle's "Opower Behavioral Load Shaping" solution, to send specialized weekly communications to approximately 800,000 customers to help mitigate the effects of a record-breaking heat wave. 

U.S. climate goals for economy-wide net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 require rapid decarbonization of the light-duty vehicle fleet and plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) are poised to become the preferred technology for achieving this end. Considerable investments in public and private EV charging infrastructure will be needed to support widespread adoption, however, guidance is still lacking on when, where, and what types of chargers will be needed.In this Load Management Dialogue, researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) discuss findings from a recent quantitative assessment of the charging network requirements needed to support 50% of light-duty EV sales by 2030. This study produced multiple detailed network growth trajectories at the national, state, and local levels that can serve as a guidepost for future planning.In addition, an overview of NREL's publicly accessible EV infrastructure tools and data sets, designed to support planning and decision-making for EV infrastructure stakeholders, will also be provided.

Consumers Energy exceeded its 1,000 EV enrollment target for the PowerMIDrive Program by 33% in 2022, demonstrating the EV load management program can scale to its next target of 10,000 vehicles and far beyond. Join us to learn about this successful program that started in 2019 with networked chargers, then telematics hardware, and ultimately experienced a massive boost in enrollments with the addition of a "Bring Your Own Charger" (BYOC) component. The BYOC component was powered by AMI data analytics and program partner Sagewell, and offers more equitable access by enabling any EV and any level 2 charger to enroll into PowerMIDrive which shifts 98% of EV load to off-peak hours without active load management.Every-day peak reduction is crucial in Michigan where the distribution grid is sized for relatively small AC load, and where a 7 kW EV charger can overload a transformer every summer and winter evening. The PowerMIDrive program makes room for faster beneficial electrification and decarbonization by reducing the need to upgrade the distribution system, and in January 2023, was approved by the Michigan Public Services Commission to become a permanent offering.

Heat pump water heaters ("HPWH") are significantly more efficient than electric resistance water heaters (“ERWH”), and they're the future!From IRA funding and electrification initiatives to simply figuring out how to address the customer experience, we forecast a dramatic increase in HPWH deployments during the next decade. While these water heaters are more efficient than gas and traditional ERWH (2-3x according to DOE), they're still the thermal batteries that we've grown to know and love. And they will still represent a material share of home energy consumption.The Shifted Energy team and Hawai'i Energy worked together to address two questions:1) Can we actually get HPWHs into LMI communities? and2) Could HPWHs serve as a similar controllable load asset in every home?Join us to find out more about this opportunity, and how it can be realized in Hawai'i and beyond. 

The U.S. electric power industry is in a transformational era. With the potential to save up to $18 billion in power system costs and 80 million tons of carbon emissions annually, grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) are critical to achieve a modern, carbon-free energy system.As part of the accelerating industry focus on carbon-reduction targets and strategies, utilities are increasingly embracing innovative demand-side resources and programs, including leveraging energy efficiency (EE), demand flexibility (DF), demand response (DR) and distributed energy resources (DERs) in the residential and commercial sectors to develop GEBs, which can be used as a resource. This presentation will highlight SEPA's Accelerating Coordinated Utility Programs for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings: Practitioners' Perspectives study, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This work examines the current state of coordinated energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and demand response utility programs that support GEBs, and how programs are transitioning to integrate energy conservation and active management of electricity in buildings for the direct or indirect provision of grid services. By gathering insights from utilities, program administrators, technology solution providers, and regulators about energy program business models and regulatory frameworks, the study provides: Practitioner perspectives on challenges to and potential solution strategies for the building energy program transitionIdentifies challenges of deploying effective coordinated energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and demand response utility programsProvides solution strategies to support all stakeholders looking to unlock a GEBs future

Wood Mackenzie has estimated the U.S. could have up to 380GW of DERs connected to the grid as soon as 2025, which represents tens of millions of new DERs. There's also the question of the impact that the biggest DERs of all might have: the surge in electric vehicles. PLMA has invited two industry experts to help us explore these questions, as well as other changes and opportunities they have on their radars for the year ahead. Join us to learn more about: policy and regulatory changes that do/don't accommodate DR/DERsFERC 2222how the utilities' role will continue to evolvethe continued promise of decarbonizationdevelopments in the wholesale markets and SEEM, and the ongoing impacts of the war in Ukraine.

Join us for a "fireside chat" with Kim Harriman, SVP, State Government Affairs and Corporate Communications at Avangrid, a sustainable energy company and PLMA member. Kim's extensive background in the development of energy policy from both a governmental and vendor perspective has provided her with a unique point of view on the ways in which all parties can work together effectively to advance the energy transition. With her deep legal and technical expertise, and her public and private sector work experiences, Kim will discuss valuable lessons around career changing, working inside complex technological environments, and her efforts to build effective, collaborative teams. Everyone welcome!

Opinion Dynamics and Extensible Energy partnered with PG&E to complete an analysis of the charging patterns of 71,000 PG&E Electric Vehicle (EV) owners and a survey of 3,000 PG&E EV owners. By integrating research findings from the customer and grid perspectives, we will share insights on common customer segments of PG&E EV chargers along with survey results that explain differences in charging patterns.This will include sharing novel insights about EV owners' perceptions of benefits, concerns, and overall attitudes towards allowing their utility to manage their charging. As EVs gain traction as a load management resource, insights from this study will provide practitioners with key takeaways for designing managed charging programs in ways that meet customer and grid needs from the region with the highest EV adoption in the country.This Dialogue will also include a discussion of where the industry needs to grow to support the scaling of EVs as a grid resource. 

Duke Energy was recognized by PLMA for its Thought Leadership in advancing numerous successful demand response programs across its territory. Its DR team manages these programs for all rate classes in five states, each on its own path to achieve the company's goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. Demand response will play a critical role in getting there, balancing load against intermittent renewable generation and pushing usage from peak. Join us to learn more about Duke's work in DR and energy reliability.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has competitively awarded a total of $61 million dollars to 10 comprehensive large-scale projects through its Connected Communities initiative to help accelerate decarbonization of buildings and the electric grid.Connected communities of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs) employ energy efficient end uses, distributed energy resources (DERs), coordinated controls and smart technologies (e.g., smart thermostats, smart water heaters, batteries) to interact with the electric grid and coordinate load flexibility to support the grid with emerging issues related to the growth of renewable energy generation.The awardee project teams include a cross-section of buildings industry stakeholders including utilities, local governments, aggregators, technology firms, home-builders and end-users. These demonstration projects are intended to demonstrate the capabilities of GEBs across an expanded range of technologies, locations, and building types than have been implemented to date, and to provide new information that will empower utilities, aggregators, technology providers, and others to scale grid flexibility and decarbonization of buildings. The projects address a range of aspects critical for scaling, including: customer engagement and retention with a focus on LMI, occupant engagement, technology interoperability, rate design, utility business models, regulatory considerations, and valuing integrated DERs and GEBs.Join us for a lively interview with Dr. Brian Walker, Technology Manager at the U.S. DOE's Building Technologies Office. We will learn about DOE's vision for this program and for leveraging its outcomes to help the industry scale load flexibility, GEBs, and decarbonization of buildings and the grid.

It's been almost two years since FERC approved Order 2222 requiring RTOs & ISOs to figure out how to give DERs access to wholesale energy markets. Now, the first RTOs and ISOs are starting to review their regional plans. These discussions are prompting utilities to consider the implications of DER aggregation on their businesses, including the role of utilities in enabling local customer programs to aggregate DERs to provide load modifying grid services, or other system benefits, that can accrue to all customers.This moderated discussion will include perspectives from four different experts in the cleantech/climate tech investment community. The discussion will revolve around energy industry innovation, business models, value streams and customer experience, as it relates to FERC 2222 and DERs over the next few years. This session may be relevant for early stage companies thinking about gaps and opportunities in the market, as well as utilities and other practitioners thinking ahead about where start-up funding is headed to build innovative cleantech solutions in years to come.

In 2021, Southern California Edison (SCE), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) completed a coordinated trio of projects, under the “Demand Response Emerging Technologies (DRET) Collaborative,” effectively demonstrating that smart speakers offer a highly promising channel for utilities to reach residential customers and facilitate beneficial changes in the way they use energy. The three utilities each used “smart speakers” as a voice-activated gateway to create an intuitive interface between the smart speakers, the utility, in-home connected smart appliances, and the customer. The voice-activated assistant created a pathway for two-way instantaneous verbal communication between the utility and the customer about energy usage, outages, and alerts. It also made it possible for customers to manage their own smart devices at home to maximize energy savings without having to individually control or program each end use. Join us and our utility guest speakers to learn more about this award-winning initiative.

Join us for a "fireside chat" with Patty Durand, Past President of the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative based in Atlanta, Georgia, in which we will discuss the role and significance of U.S. Public Services Commissions (PSCs) and Public Utilities Commissions (PUCs) in determining the cost of energy, as well as how these state commissions participate in addressing important utility issues including energy equity and energy burden.

Washington, D.C. has established ambitious goals in the area of decarbonization. Join us for this conversation as Pepco and Brattle discuss how they assessed the impact of electrification on the Pepco DC system and explored the role of customer energy efficiency and load flexibility programs in managing system impacts. The resulting 5-Year Action Plan filed with the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia provides substantial benefits relative to the plan's program costs.

This summer, PG&E's Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) will leverage an Olivine app for its residential customers. PG&E's ELRP, administered by Olivine, focuses on aggregating dispatchable load in times of high grid stress and emergencies, and will include C&I customers, program aggregators, Virtual Power Plant (VPP) aggregators, and Vehicle-to-Grid aggregations.PG&E's program implementation, which uses Olivine's ClimateResponseTM technology and services, provides a model for how utilities can rapidly design, launch, and scale efforts to respond to grid emergencies and mitigate current and future impacts of climate change. Join us to learn more about these programs, how they work, and how they are serving diverse communities in Northern California this summer.

It's been almost two years since FERC approved Order 2222 requiring RTOs & ISOs to figure out how to give DERs access to wholesale energy markets. Now, the first RTOs and ISOs are starting to review their regional plans. These discussions are prompting utilities to consider the implications of DER aggregation on their businesses, including the role of utilities in enabling local customer programs to aggregate DERs to provide load modifying grid services, or other system benefits, that can accrue to all customers. Three utilities with varying perspectives will share how they are planning for these policies in their territories. This session may be relevant for utilities currently formulating their plans, state regulators who are considering how the federal and regional policies influence their approach to tariffs and customer programs, plus service providers who may work directly with utilities or energy consumers, and venture capitalists wanting to understand the latest details of this evolving market opportunity.

In September of 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), due to findings of “unjust and unreasonable” market rules that present barriers to DER aggregations in RTO/ISO market, issued Order number 2222 titled: “Participation of Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Aggregations in Markets Operated by Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) And Independent System Operators (ISOs).”Since that time, this order has had two “Rehearing Orders” (2222-A and 2222-B) issued, while compliance filings have also been submitted by the ISOs/RTOs. The goal of the order is to enhance competition by removing barriers to participation of DER aggregations into the RTO/ISO markets, and to ensure these markets produce just and reasonable rates.PLMA's 4-part series on the pivotal FERC Order 2222 discusses it from a variety of viewpoints.Part 1 of the Series: “Overview and Compliance Process Update,” is presented by FERC staff members David Kathan and Nichole Businelli. This session will form a foundation for the succeeding conversations where several market participants will share their plans and perspectives as we plan for a “post FERC 2222” marketplace for DER aggregations.

Working with WeaveGrid, Baltimore Gas & Electric's (BGE) EV Smart Residential EV Program is among the first programs to use electric vehicle (EV)-based telematics to provide insights on customer charging behavior, and is also the very first program to use telematics to support an EV time-of-use (TOU) rate without the need of a networked smart charger or a utility installed sub-meter for EV charging. Join us to learn more about this award-winning program that resulted in a 20% improvement in charging during off-peak times.

The number of winter-peaking utilities is expected to grow much larger over the next 10–20 years due to electrification of end uses, particularly space heating. Additional winter constraints, like the loss of generation during extreme weather events, can pose similar challenges for the electric grid to meeting winter demand.This discussion with ACEEE's Utility Manager, Michael Specian, will characterize the opportunity for demand-side measures (DSMs) like demand response, energy efficiency, and storage to mitigate winter peaks and constraints. It will cover the state of current and future winter peaks, summarize which DSMs offer the greatest potential for managing high winter demand, and highlight examples of existing North American utility programs that realize winter peak savings through DSMs. It will also provide a regional modeling case study of a highly electrified New England to quantify the extent to which different DSM packages can mitigate winter peak resulting from a polar vortex event.

In this "fireside chat" with Jill Anderson, Executive Vice President of Operations at Southern California Edison, and hosted by PLMA's Women in DM Affinity Group, we will discuss the art of creating diverse, high performing teams that build on different perspectives and experiences in order to drive the clean energy transition. Jill discusses her own career path, her lessons learned along the way, and how she has used her unique perspective to develop and lead open, collaborative teams. 

Co-moderated by PLMA's Global Load Management Interest GroupGuest Speakers: Lisa DeMarco of Resilient LLP [Canada],Tom Howes, Head of Energy and Environment, International Energy Agency [Paris]Thursday, March 3, 2022 | 12:30 to 1:30 pm ETPricing carbon emissions has been widely recognized as the most efficient means to reduce GHGs while also driving innovation. Join PLMA's Global Load Management Interest Group and experts from both Canada and the International Energy Agency in Paris as we explore decarbonization systems, how they are performing to date, the lessons others are learning about carbon pricing, and what opportunities exist for the U.S. In one example, Canada's widely supported carbon pricing forecasts it will reduce 50-60 MT of emissions in 2022. This represents ~12% of all Canadian emissions.

Moderated by Mark Martinez, Southern California Edisonand featuring Peter Kelly-Detwiler of NorthBridge Energy PartnersWoods Mackenzie has estimated the U.S. could have up to 380GW of DERs connected to the grid as soon as 2025, which represents tens of millions of new DERs. What does the path to those kind of numbers look like? PLMA has invited popular author and consultant Peter Kelly-Detwiler to speak with us about the coming year and what it portends for:  policy and regulatory changes that do/don't accommodate DR/DERsFERC 2222how the utilities' role will continue to evolvethe impact of a continuation of the COVID limitations on the economy and workplacesthe promise of decarbonizationdevelopments in the wholesale markets and SEEM, and the growth of electric transportationJoin us for an engaging discussion about what lies ahead for demand response and DER practitioners in 2022!

Join PLMA Vice Chair Rich Barone of TRC Companies and Global Load Management Interest Group Co-Chair Ross Malme of Bowen Inc., a growth capital investment bank, as they discuss with our guest speakers the issues and opportunities of energy "islands." This intriguing discussion will focus specifically on Japan and Hawaii, two physical islands that both have high levels of DER penetration.

Since launching in 2019, the Eversource ConnectedSolutions program has rapidly scaled up, setting the bar high for demand management programs in the Northeast. Eversource ConnectedSolutions' enrollment in 2020 surpassed its goals by more than 60 MW, reaching 170 MW approved for targeted dispatch, plus 6.3 MW of storage capacity approved for daily peak shaving. The utility continues to drive enrollments and plans to add several hundred more MW to its portfolio of DERs over the next few years.Eversource's ConnectedSolutions program is significant for both the large demand reductions it has achieved, but also for the diversity of customers and assets it has enrolled, including more than 600 C&I customers who use a range of curtailment strategies, and more than 33,000 residential devices including WiFi thermostats, EV chargers, residential battery storage, and WiFi-connected A/C units.Eversource continues to look for additional partners and devices to add to the program, as well as additional use cases focused on DERs that can maximize customer and grid benefits, beyond peak demand response. Eversource's innovative take on demand response has surpassed expectations and has emerged as a model for what is possible.  

Western Power partnered with commercial and industrial businesses in Western Australia to build flexibility services into customer solutions as a way to create a more sustainable, reliable and innovative network for the future. With Western Power's customers now not only consuming energy but also supplying energy, they needed to change the way the network is managed to enable this two-way flow of energy. At critical times of low loads, this means curtailing solar generation and increasing loads like charging batteries or scheduling processes such as pumping water.Through this program, Western Australian businesses can determine the best way to manage their distributed energy resources in a way that meets their needs and provides network support, in return for compensation by Western Power.The program was implemented in a very short time frame. Western Power selected Schneider Electric to provide the platform in April of 2020, with implementation, customer recruitment all happening before September 2020. The first of two control seasons concluded in November.This innovative program is one of the ways this forward-thinking utility is smoothing out their ‘duck curve' into a ‘platypus' and enabling a future where more renewables can be connected to the grid.

The GridSavvy Community program was created by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), the community choice aggregator (CCA) for California's Sonoma and Mendocino counties. This innovative program moves away from traditional siloed approaches that segregate participation by customer classes and/or technology and instead offers a range of customer options to increase DER technology adoption.GridSavvy Community customers receive attractive incentives for purchasing and enrolling smart devices such as thermostats, EV chargers, and heat pump water heaters. The program focuses on engaging low-income and equity customers, offering these customers higher incentives and financing to ease first-cost barriers to DER technology adoption.Together with its partner Olivine, SCP aggregates these devices and dispatches them to help shape and shift Sonoma Clean Power's customer load, reducing the utilities' need to buy pricier and dirtier power during periods of peak load. Because of of its focus on varied DER resources, the program is able to take advantage of multiple load modifying strategies, from event-based (with the EV chargers) to a daily load shift (with the water heaters). In the summer of 2020--when the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) called rolling black outs--the GridSavvy Community responded, keeping the lights on for customers and providing a source of local resilience. 

Electric vehicles and smart charging infrastructure are poised to play a major role in providing critical energy services to the grid. Smart EV charging can provide intelligent real-time grid balancing and advanced grid support during times of high demand and limited energy supply. It has demonstrated success by operating EVs as “storage on wheels” during the 12 to 15+ hours per day that vehicles typically sit unused.In 2020, California faced the worst fire season in its history and a record heatwave. Enel X's demand response, energy storage, and smart EV charging customers pitched in as part of a statewide effort among commercial and residential energy users to reduce strain on the grid.With the increasing frequency of extreme weather conditions such as the 2020 California heatwave and 2021's winter storms which brought sub-freezing temperatures and power outages to millions across Texas and the U.S., there is an urgent need to expand demand-side distributed energy resources. Enel X enables industrial, commercial, and residential customers to earn cash flows and enhance resilience by supporting grid reliability through mechanisms such as vehicle-grid integration (VGI), automated load management (ALM), participation in dynamic rates, and V2G for backup-power and resiliency in the future.

In 2020, Consumers Energy launched an ambitious Clean Energy Plan to eliminate coal and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. This plan focuses on increasing flexibility to the grid and as part of this effort, Consumers Energy developed and delivered a program in the spring of 2020 to give away Google Nest thermostats to Michigan households during the COVID-19 pandemic to help them save energy and money.Electric customers who received smart thermostats were also pre-enrolled in the Smart Thermostat Program, which shifts energy usage to off-peak hours — while also keeping households comfortable – on a few days each year. Consumers Energy placed more than 50,000 Google Nest thermostats in homes and enrolled 91.6% of eligible customers in the Smart Thermostat Program. Launched in only six weeks, Consumers Energy went above and beyond to help their customers during a pandemic lower their energy bills in a no-cost manner while also furthering its goals of a more flexible grid.The program also served as an important starting point for its winter demand response program focused on natural gas customers -- both residential and businesses -- which launched in the fall of 2020.

The industry is evolving at a variety of speeds across North America (usually depending upon geographical region) and learnings are being discovered unevenly in most cases. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor developments and use a broad base of information to help formulate plans for the future. Even though many utility commissions put a premium on pilots/projects within their jurisdiction(s) there is so much to be learned as others continue down the learning curve.The playing field is changing quickly for utilities, services providers and end users--to the point that the lines between them are blurring in many cases. This panel discussion features some of the top entities involved in research concerning the opportunities and impacts of the growth of flexible load technologies. Join us as they share some highlights of what they are seeing in the marketplace and where it may be leading. 

For this conversation, Joyce Bodoh, Director of Energy Solutions and Clean Energy at Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC), will present REC's survey results and load data on electric vehicles from its Virginia service area. She will also discuss REC's roadmap on transportation electrification, and will share tips on member engagement.The group co-chairs will then host a discussion to share ideas, thoughts, and suggestions around topical and relevant issues for PLMA to explore throughout 2021. Join us for this first look at electric transportation and its role in demand response and load management.

The new energy economy is being driven by the big “Three D’s”, Decarbonization, Decentralization and Digitalization. As a result, a transformation of the energy industry is underway, away from a traditional central station electricity generation model and toward a new asset class of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). This, coupled with the enormous rotation of capital away from the oil and gas industry into renewable electricity generation, energy storage, and cleantech makes for exciting times!Join PLMA Vice Chair Rich Barone of TRC Companies and former PLMA Chair Ross Malme of Bowen Advisors, a growth capital investment bank, as they discuss these and other exciting trends in M&A and growth capital investment in energy tech.

Woods Mackenzie estimates the U.S. could have up to 380GW of DERs connected to the grid as soon as 2025. This represents tens of millions of DERs entering the ecosystem across many DER asset classes including EV-to-grid and grid-to-EV charging and interconnection, smart solar inverters, energy storage, microgrids, and many other intelligent devices.Together, these will create potentially billions of DER-to-grid transactions. One likely result will be the need for a new transaction infrastructure. Join our moderator, PLMA Secretary Joe Childs of Eaton, to explore what this infrastructure might be, its benefits, and challenges.

It has been a wild and wooly year for managing residential demand response programs. In addition to normal program management we have had the additional challenges of our customers and ourselves having to shelter-in-place, as well as the difficulty predicting changes in customer behavior this new normal brings. Join the Customer Engagement Interest Group to learn more about challenges your utility peers have faced and some of the approaches they have taken to keep their programs fully subscribed and delivering results while customers’ homes are more fully occupied. Length: 59:11.

With the electric vehicle industry growing exponentially, it is expected to become a major revenue generator for utilities all over the world. As a result, utilities are beginning to explore opportunities to offer end-to-end EV charging solutions to commercial businesses and homeowners, which will enable them to assume a more significant role in the e-mobility industry.In this Dialogue, our guest speaker, Driivz CEO Doron Frenkel will demonstrate how, by owning as well as managing EV chargers and the EV owner relationship, utilities can gain maximum visibility of around the availability and stability of the charger network, real-time control of demand response, and also be able to optimize energy management for depot/home charging.

Hosted by the Retail Pricing Interest GroupCon Edison’s Residential Demand Rate pilot program has been testing new rate structures made possible with the implementation of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). Smart meters offer customers choices that can lead to savings, and also help make electricity distribution more responsive and reliable.Learn about Con Edison's Residential Demand Rate pilot, its rate structures, and the customers' experiences with our guest speakers, Rebecca Roberts, a Section Manager with Con Edison's Utility of the Future Group, and Eric Van Orden, Director of Sales and Business Development with Copper Labs.

In this discussion, Michael Brown and Catherine Morehouse will discuss Utility Dive's interviews with power sector experts who are tentatively predicting big changes for the year ahead. Join us to learn what we might expect from the new administration, and how its approach will potentially affect policymakers, regulators, utilities, and other stakeholders.

On September 17, FERC issued Order 2222, directing ISOs/RTOs to open their markets to participation by aggregated distributed energy resources (DERs). This Order may have broad implications for RTOs, states, utilities, service providers, and customers, ranging from technical, to jurisdictional, to financial, to operational. This interesting and timely discussion will provide perspectives on the Order from an Investor Owned Utility, Electric Cooperatives, a State Coalition, and a Service Provider.