March 7
Ameren Illinois Files Energy Efficiency Plan
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
Member News
Ameren Illinois submitted its energy efficiency plan to the Illinois Commerce Commission to help its residential and business customers further reduce their energy usage, lower their carbon footprint and save on their monthly energy bills. The plan targets 1,122 GWh of electric savings through energy efficiency upgrades from 2026 to 2029, which is expected to save customers over $2 billion over the life of the upgrades.
Virtual power plant (VPP) use is on the rise, and their success hinges on enrollment and participation. We recently hosted a webinar about how to find the most successful marketing messages to boost customer engagement – particularly participation – in virtual power plants. We had a great turnout, and we hope that everyone who attended found it informative and helpful.
Hillsborough County Water Resources Department, Florida’s third-largest water utility, is revolutionizing its customer service operations with the implementation of POWERCONNECT.AI, marking a groundbreaking milestone in AI adoption for the utility sector. Serving over 240,000 accounts and 700,000 residents, the department delivers over 77 million gallons of potable water daily and recovers over 46 million gallons of wastewater.
A new large-scale battery facility is now providing backup power to the community during storms, according to Duke Energy Florida. The 8.25 MW, lithium-based battery facility in the historic town of Micanopy is the first site in Duke Energy Florida’s portfolio that can automatically disconnect from the electric grid during storms and supply power to approximately 800 customers for up to eight hours to help prevent outages.
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Industry News
Since 2017, sweeping legislation in Illinois has sparked a solar power boom and launched ambitious energy equity and green jobs programs. Now, for the third time in under a decade, state lawmakers, advocates and industry groups have their sights set on ensuring that clean energy momentum. The focus this legislative session is the electric grid.
In 10 years leading Grid Forward, I’ve witnessed utilities and energy organizations advancing today’s defining grid technologies, business models and markets. Some innovations such as artificial intelligence were almost unthinkable a decade ago. But for all the mind-bending progress, improving both energy affordability and reliability remains a stubborn challenge.
To foster a deeper understanding of customers facing financial challenges, employees of Florida public power utility JEA recently participated in a simulation exercise designed to highlight the realities of living with limited financial resources. The United Way of Northeast Florida led a Meet “ALICE” poverty simulation at JEA, offering insight into the experiences of working families who navigate constant financial pressures.
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center will deploy 100 bidirectional EV chargers at no cost to residential, commercial, municipal and school customers as part of a two-year “vehicle-to-everything” demonstration, program partners Resource Innovations and The Mobility House said. The demonstration will add an estimated 1.5 MW of distributed energy storage capacity across Massachusetts by September 2026.
