May 10
Virtual Peaker Launches Topline Demand Control Solution
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based distributed energy technology company that empowers utilities to build the grid of the future and meet global decarbonization goals, this week launched the first-of-its-kind Topline Demand Control solution for utilities. The technology maximizes the potential of distributed energy resources (DERs), ensuring they can effectively provide grid stability, when required, with dependable and precise accuracy.
PSEG Long Island received an award recently for innovation in digital engagement. The CS Week Expanding Excellence Award for Innovation in Digital Engagement recognizes PSEG Long Island for its successful rate modernization effort. This effort saw the utility lower customer bills by an average of 10 percent and shift 4-5 percent of electricity load out of the peak. Through this initiative, PSEG Long Island enrolled more than 14,000 customers in time-of-use (TOU) rates, more than double the original target.
With electric vehicle adoption expected to surge, utilities are faced with a load growth challenge. In preparing for that new energy demand, utility giant Southern Company is among those exploring whether artificial intelligence can simplify the transition – and act as a middleman between the automotive and utility industries.
Fifty-four percent of Americans who do not currently own an electric vehicle (EV) are interested in purchasing one in the future; however, 64 percent cite the purchase price as a significant barrier to ownership, according to the latest survey from the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), a nonprofit organization that studies Americans’ energy-related behaviors, interests and values.
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Industry News
Despite the steady drumbeat of negative headlines about the electric vehicle market, EVs are breaking sales records across the globe. This year, around 17 million new fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) will be sold worldwide, according to new estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA). That’s up from 13.7 million sold last year.
A national nonprofit of automakers and energy service providers focused on the transition to electric vehicles has launched an effort to bring more utilities into the conversation. The Vehicle-Grid Integration Council on April 30 announced the creation of a Utility Collaboration Forum, designed to facilitate discussion between power companies and VGIC members.
This year has already brought major milestones for the U.S. clean energy industry, with solar topping 100 GW at utility-scale, 5.6 GW of new clean power added in the first quarter and the first offshore wind project in federal waters now supplying power to the grid. In its Clean Power Quarterly Market Report for Q1 2024, the American Clean Power Association (ACP) revealed significant growth, including power deployments that were up 28 percent year-over-year.
Addressing climate change means getting fossil fuels out of about 115 million U.S. homes — ASAP. But right now, that shift is happening at a snail’s pace; by one expert’s estimate, it would take about 200 years to electrify all homes at the current rate. Entrepreneur Grant Gunnison sees a way to speed things along – and the approach hinges on homeowners’ smartphones.
