July 23
PSEG Signs AMI Deal with Landis + Gyr
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
New Jersey utility Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG) signed a 10-year deal with Landis + Gyr Technology, a subsidiary of Landis + Gyr Group, for the supply of 2.3 million advanced meters, network infrastructure and associated software and services. Those elements will be connected to the Landis + Gyr Gridstream Connect AMI platform. This agreement was part of PSE&G’s AMI technology deployment to support the utility’s historic Clean Energy Future program in New Jersey.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed and published a new model to simplify and accelerate the deployment of grid-interactive buildings. NREL developed the model through its Integrated Energy Solutions and Commercial Buildings Research division specifically for projects leveraging federal energy performance contracts to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings and their role in the stability of the main grid.
ecobee’s thermostat optimization software, eco+, has been awarded the 2021 Energy Award for Innovation in Technology from AESP. Through this award, eco+ has been recognized as a leading technology that is bringing load flexibility to the grid at scale. ecobee smart thermostats enabled with eco+ allow utilities to improve demand response program participation rates by streamlining the enrollment experience, while also delivering savings across various program types.
Working to keep in line with the analyses of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Dominion Energy issued an updated climate report last week that highlighted new paths for it to reach net-zero carbon and methane emissions by 2050. Dominion Energy runs gas and electric businesses in 16 states. It first announced net-zero emissions plans in February last year and has since then laid out a climate governance framework to guide its corporate strategy and risk management processes.
OhmConnect announced yesterday the support of Central Valley business leaders and California Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula for its EndCABlackouts campaign, which offers one million California residents free smart thermostats to help prevent blackouts in California this summer. Together, these leaders call on businesses and their employees to join OhmConnect’s effort to save energy, get paid for their efforts and help prevent blackouts that threaten residents and business operations alike.
Hawaiian Electric said that it is now accepting applications for Battery Bonus, a new program that will pay a cash incentive for residential and commercial customers on O‘ahu to add energy storage to an existing or new rooftop solar system. The incentive will help move Hawai’i toward its goal of 100-percent clean energy by 2045 and add more renewable resources to the grid in the short-term when the AES coal-fired plant is retired in September 2022.
A planned Austin neighborhood is touting itself as “the nation’s most sustainable residential community,” with homes outfitted with solar panels and battery storage from Tesla. The SunHouse at Easton Park development is the result of a partnership between Tesla, Brookfield Asset Management and real estate developer Dacra. Installations at the homes began in June with sample homes that will help guide the rest of the planned development.
According to a new report, the U.S. power sector saw the largest annual decrease in carbon dioxide emissions ever in 2020. Carbon dioxide emissions fell 10 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, the largest year-over-year decrease since the Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States report was first released in 1997. This is the 17th edition of the report.