Get a Load of This! Monthly Digest of Insights Shared by Your Peers in the Energy Central Load Management Group –July 28, 2022

Load management encompasses the critical strategies of ensuring that power supply and demand meet cleanly at a point that doesn’t stress the grid or cause financial stress on utilities or customers, an area that will be of increasing importance with each passing year. In this monthly digest, we cover the most talked about and newsworthy articles in this space that were published on Energy Central over the past four weeks. We invite you to ‘get a load of this!’ every month and track the load management sector.

New Load Source – Car Dealers

Doug Houseman

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/em/new-load-source-car-dealers 

We spend a lot of time talking about the future of electrified transportation and what impact it will have on the grid (if this is an area in your wheelhouse, definitely consider contributing to our upcoming Special Issue on the topic!), but resident thought leader Doug Houseman poses an interesting question that doesn’t get brought up as much: what about the EV car dealerships themselves?

Xcel time-of-use rate pilot shows only slight impact

Frank Jossi

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/pip/xcel-time-use-rate-pilot-shows-only-slight-impact-energy-news-network 

Time of Use rates is one of the most used strategies when it comes to load management and providing nudges from a market perspective to ensure that supply and demand are most likely to align. But what is the exact impact of such TOU rates? Are they as much as we expect? Can we expect customers to act completely rationally? Frank Jossi’s coverage of a recent TOU pilot from Xcel calls into question the real impact, and it’s worth exploring.

Going beyond energy efficiency – how can industrial energy users provide flexibility to help decarbonise the grid?

Siobhan McHugh

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/em/going-beyond-energy-efficiency-%E2%80%93-how-can-industrial-energy-users-provide   

Industrial customers have the greatest individual load demand on the grid, and while energy efficiency has always been a potential solution that has been utilized, more impact can likely be felt when industrial opens itself up to flexibility than conservation. Siobhan, from the Demand Response Association of Ireland, highlights the magnitude of this possibility.

Alliant Energy offers $25 payments if customers let utility control thermostats

Jeff Adams

Link to original article: https://energycentral.com/c/pip/alliant-energy-offers-25-payments-if-customers-let-utility-control-thermostats 

Lastly, it’s always critical to hear from the utilities themselves about the success and challenges associated with attempted load management projects. As such it was great to hear from Jeff Adams, Lead Customer Product Manager at Alliant Energy, to cover what results they had in their smart thermostat demand response program. Could this be the beginning of deeper flexibility and customization in the market? These types of offerings are sure to test those waters.

Thanks for reading this issue of ‘Get a Load of This!’ See you in this spot in four weeks to go over the great content that will be coming between now and then! This spot can feature the insights from you or the major stories at your organization—so don’t be shy about sharing your content on the Load Management Group today!

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