September 19
Duke Energy Florida Adds Self-Healing Grid Tech
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Duke Energy Florida said it plans to expand the use of smart, self-healing technology, which is used to automatically detect outages and reroute power to other lines. The utility said that about 80 percent of its customers currently benefit from self-healing technology, and since January 2024, the technology has helped Duke Energy Florida avoid more than 950,000 extended power outages, while saving nearly 6.3 million hours of outages for customers across Florida.
Since the early days of the smart grid era, when emerging technologies were creating new avenues for expanding the utility-customer relationship, the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC) has segmented the U.S. population to illuminate consumer needs and identify next steps for electricity providers looking to increase customer engagement and satisfaction.
EnergyHub, a leading provider of grid-edge flexibility solutions, announced the acquisition of Bridge to Renewables (BTR), a strategic investment that will accelerate utility EV program growth. Through the acquisition, EnergyHub expands its direct partnerships with top EV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), gains access to foundational integrations with those OEMs and enables highly engaging EV driver experiences across managed charging programs.
ComEd recently started the test phase of its vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging pilot with three Illinois school districts. The V2G charging pilot, the first of its kind in northern Illinois, will evaluate the technology that could enable bidirectional charging with electric school buses to enhance energy optimization, support grid stability and create new ways for customers to potentially lower their energy usage during peak demand times, the company said.
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The cost of keeping California’s power grid up and running is skyrocketing, and in turn, so are households’ energy bills. Virtual power plants, which harness the combined power of lots of rooftop solar systems, home batteries, EVs and smart home appliances, can help – especially if utilities use them to relieve pressure at counterintuitive “sweet spots” on the grid.
Power management company Eaton and electric vehicle charger network ChargePoint have unveiled new EV charging infrastructure meant to provide ultrafast charging along with bidirectional charging capabilities, the companies recently announced. The new ChargePoint Express Grid aims to “seamlessly synchronize onsite renewables, energy storage and vehicle batteries with local energy markets to help fleets significantly reduce fueling costs.”
Orlando Utilities Commission, a Florida public power utility, recently announced that it has connected nearly 11,000 households with $11.7 million in critical funding to help cover their home energy costs. Since April, OUC has partnered with technology provider Promise to proactively identify and contact customers who qualify for financial support through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
There were plenty of reasons to think that this year’s RE+, the U.S. solar industry’s biggest annual gathering, would be a gloomy and downtrodden affair. The Trump administration had declared an energy emergency, then set about reducing energy supply by going after renewables projects. The massive spending law yanked nearly seven years of tax credits for wind and solar.
