April 1
SCE Embarks on Residential Battery VPP Project
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
AutoGrid Systems announced that Southern California Edison (SCE) is using its platform to deploy a large-scale residential battery virtual power plant (VPP) as part of a program to contribute to cleaner energy throughout the state and help accelerate California’s carbon neutrality goals. SCE, the state’s second-largest IOU, which serves 15 million residents, has identified solar plus storage as critical for meeting California’s carbon neutrality goal and grid resiliency.
As electricity providers and other industry stakeholders strive to deliver more equitable energy efficiency and clean energy programs and services, residential renters are one key customer segment for engagement that should not be overlooked. Making up more than one-third of American households today, renters have unique barriers that have traditionally made them difficult to reach.
Uplight worked with See Change Institute to learn more about how EV owners interacted with their utility before, during and after their EV purchase. We found that most customers didn’t think about EV charging before their purchase, didn’t contact their utility unless they had a higher-than-normal bill and ended up charging at home with the charger that came with their car.
Customers of ComEd in Kankakee County, Illinois could save up to $1,000 annually on their electricity bills if they subscribe to a new, community solar project designed to benefit low- and moderate-income customers. Stemming from the Gar Creek solar project, this offer will host up to 600 customers of ComEd. However, the project itself is owned by Fosler Solar and was developed by Trajectory Energy Partners of Illinois.
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Industry News
Utilities’ online marketplaces have untapped potential within demand-side management (DSM). New approaches to incentive targeting, product financing, distributed energy resource (DER) adoption, and revenue-generating models are adding compelling value for utilities in their efforts to meet savings goals. In particular, traditional approaches in product rebating, access for lower income groups, and plug load reduction are being revamped using improved data analytics and business models.
Green Mountain Power recently announced the launch of a pilot program with Enphase Energy Systems that will allow customers to lease or purchase two Enphase IQ energy storage batteries for their homes. Through this program, customers can choose to lease Enphase batteries for a monthly payment of $65 for ten years or buy their own for $6,500 and enroll their Enphase batteries in GMP’s “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) program.
The U.S. installed a record 3 GW of grid-scale storage in 2021, nearly three times the previous record set in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association (ACP). Last year marked the first time the U.S. deployed more than 2 GW of grid-scale battery storage in a single year, according to Jason Burwen, Vice President of Energy Storage at ACP.
It’s a lot easier to store heat in water than it is to store heat in air. Why not make a household heating system that can ease strain on the electric grid by taking advantage of that fact? Longtime Silicon Valley energy industry executive Jane Melia asked herself that question in 2017 when she was looking for a more eco-friendly replacement for her home’s aging gas furnace.
