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PLMA: Load Management Dialogues
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PLMA: Load Management Dialogues

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This is Load Management Dialogues presented by PLMA. Here you’ll discover practitioner perspectives on flexible energy load management, demand response, and distributed energy resources. 

73 Episodes
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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.Speakers:Peter Kelly-Detwiler, Northbridge Energy PartnersEthan Howland, Utility DiveRich Barone, Get Smart, LLC (moderator)
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. Speakers: Kim Harriman, AvangridSangeeta Ranade, Alphastruxure (moderator)
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.
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