September 20
Bidgely Unveils New GenAI Integration for UtilityAI Platform
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Bidgely has introduced a new generative AI (GenAI) integration into its award-winning UtilityAI Platform, offering utilities and their customers even more intelligent and intuitive experiences for energy management. A series of secure and scalable product rollouts will enable autonomous query responses for faster results that will redefine data insights and utility program implementation.
After decades of relatively flat electricity demand across the U.S., demand could increase by an average of nine percent by 2028 while peak demand for electricity could increase by an average of five percent over the same period, a new report from consulting firm ICF said. The report measures and maps electricity demand growth across the U.S. over the next four years and the potential costs to utilities.
The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) issued a new report that says a quarter of low-income households spend more than 15 percent of their income on energy bills. This revealed that low-income residents experience higher energy burdens – the share of income spent on energy –than other households. It also found that in 23 of the 25 largest metropolitan areas, one-in-four low-income households have energy bills that exceeded 10 percent of income.
Owners of some electric vehicles made by Ford can now participate in Southern California Edison’s Emergency Load Reduction Program, earning money for reducing charging during times of peak grid demand, the companies announced Tuesday. Ford is the first major U.S. automaker to facilitate customer participation in SCE’s ELRP, the company said.
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Industry News
Every so often in sunny Colorado, I pass by a house with rooftop solar panels that look a little bit different. With their muted luster and thicker frames, these big, dark panels stand out for a reason: They’re not your typical electricity-making solar panels but are instead used to heat up a home’s water. First developed in 1891, well before their power-producing photovoltaic (PV) counterparts, solar water heaters are “the other white meat” of solar tech.
General Motors Co. and electric vehicle charging provider EVgo will collaborate to deploy 400 DC-fast charging stations at locations in major metropolitan areas in the U.S., the automaker announced in a press release. The deployment includes flagship charging sites co-branded by EVgo and the automaker’s subsidiary GM Energy.
A small utility in the Colorado Front Range has big plans for a virtual power plant. The Platte River Power Authority is a non-profit, wholesale generation and transmission utility that serves 380,000 thousand customers across the Colorado cities of Estes Park, Fort Collins, Longmont and Loveland. Its 2024 integrated resource plan includes a new, and ambitious, generation target: 32 megawatts of dispatchable capacity via a VPP by 2030.
Texas has become an all-around clean energy juggernaut, thanks to its lax permitting regime, fast grid-interconnection process, competitive energy market, and ample amount of solar- and wind-friendly land. Its plans for the next year and a half underscore that status. As of July, the state intended to build 35 gigawatts of clean energy over 18 months, more than the next nine states combined.
