December 17
Landis+Gyr to Implement Utility Prepay Platform for Salt River Project
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Landis+Gyr is working with Arizona’s Salt River Project (SRP) on the implementation and management of a new prepay and electronic billing solution from PayGo to support the electric provider’s M-Power prepay program. SRP will begin transitioning its prepay program to PayGo under a 10-year service agreement with Landis+Gyr.
Executives with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) recently detailed how TVA is taking steps to create visibility tied to the impact of EVs on the power system and EV needs for electricity consumption, as well as where renewable energy resources are being developed. Laura Duncan, TVA’s Manager for Commercial Energy Solutions, and Drew Frye, TVA’s Manager for Commercial Energy Services, made their comments on Dec. 2 during the American Public Power Association’s Public Power Forward Virtual Summit.
According to data from the Census Bureau, about 36 percent of the 122.8 million American households are rented rather than owned, meaning, for most electricity providers, renters comprise a significant segment of the residential customer base. As the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) learned in their Energy Equity for Renters study, “rental homes are typically less energy-efficient than others, on average, consuming 15 percent more energy per square foot than owner-occupied homes.”
The Active Efficiency Collaborative, an initiative launched by the Alliance to Save Energy, recently released a report designed to help people understand the benefits of demand flexibility. Demand flexibility is the capability to reduce, shed, shift or modulate electricity consumption in real-time. It is critical to ensure that the energy transition can occur rapidly without compromising reliability or energy affordability.
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Industry News
The U.S. energy storage market once again broke records in the third quarter — installing 3,515 MWh of new storage — and is likely to surpass that number in the last quarter of the year, according to a report from Wood Mackenzie and the U.S. Energy Storage Association. Front-of-the-meter installments amounted to 998 MW/3,198 MWh this quarter.
Swell Energy is working with three California utilities on pilot projects to expand the grid for residential solar and storage resources. Swell is working with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to expand residential participation in their respective Capacity Bidding Programs. Through these programs, homeowners with solar and storage systems can receive compensation for supporting overall grid reliability while maintaining reserves in their battery for emergency use.
The White House released what it called an EV Charging Action Plan to outline what the U.S. federal government is doing to build out electric vehicle charging infrastructure and progress toward President Joe Biden’s goal of putting more EVs on U.S. roads. According to a White House release, the $65 billion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act establishes a Joint Office of Energy and Transportation that will focus on deploying EV infrastructure by working with industry leaders and manufacturers.
According to new data released by Consumers Energy, use of electric vehicles in Michigan could cut drivers’ costs by as much as 60 percent, thanks to charging costs as low as 16 cents per kW hour. Comparatively, the average price per gallon of gas in Michigan right now, amid surging inflation, is about $3.18 per gallon.
