PLMA: Load Management Dialogues

In October 2022, the government of Ontario in Canada issued a directive to its Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to increase investments in energy efficiency and demand management; the lowest-cost ways of meeting system needs. These increased investments enabled additional demand-side management programming, including the "Save on Energy Peak Perks" program. Close coordination between the IESO, service provider EnergyHub, and partners including ecobee and Renew Home (formerly Google Nest) was essential to delivering rapid scale for the Peak Perks program.

The result? Ontario IESO built Canada’s largest VPP in just six months with the capacity to deliver a peak demand reduction of up to 90 MW, equivalent to taking a mid-sized Canadian city off the grid during peak times. Join us to learn more about how this program was developed and launched so quickly and effectively, as well as its lessons learned.

Avista used Bidgely’s UtilityAI Platform to validate expectations about their EV customers, helping to drive equitable electrification for all, including low income communities. Join us to learn more about how Bidgely helped Avista reduce high-bill-investigation truck rolls by 27% in the first year; improve customer engagement/satisfaction; enhance EV grid planning; and save hundreds of hours of employee workload. The platform also helped Avista’s grid planning teams as they evaluated the impact of EV adoption over time. We'll explore Avista's implementation, results, and lessons learned. 

This panel will explore the intricacies of orchestrating electric vehicle managed charging programs and how automakers, electric vehicle supply equipment manufacturers, software providers, and utilities interact and promote effective programs. Drawing from lessons learned and experiences to date, the discussion will focus on managing EV charging to mitigate transformer overloading, avoid feeder upgrades, and improve energy usage across the grid.

The pending deadline for the SEC’s new reporting requirements around Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals adds a new layer of complexity for all publicly traded organizations, including utilities. Accurately reporting decarbonization, DR/DER results, environmental stewardship, and community engagement will require new data collection approaches and analysis. Learn how the energy industry can accelerate its progress toward both achieving and reporting its ESG goals.

Speakers:
Greg Chafee, Partner, Thompson Hine
Tanya Nesbitt, Partner, Thompson Hine
McGee Young, CEO and Founder, WattCarbon
Sydnie Hinds, Principal Investor Relations Analyst, Portland General Electric
Scott Coe, CEO, Grid Optimize
Ross Malme, Senior Advisor, Kitu Systems

Delivering a successful utility EV program, whether focused on adoption or managed charging, requires coordination across several different stakeholders, including the utility, utility vendors, and OEMs. Often, car dealerships are ignored due to their unique structure and their relatively new engagement with utility programs. This session will discuss specific barriers car dealerships face within the transition to EVs and strategies utilities can use to engage dealerships and potentially smooth the EV buying experience.

The way customers use energy is changing in fundamental ways.  Home energy technology - electric vehicles, air conditioners, solar and storage - can be a headache for utilities and grids, but active load management can unlock great value for customers and utilities.

London-based Octopus Energy is a leading energy supplier with over 7,700,000 customers worldwide, across the UK, US, Europe, and APAC. It is at the forefront of domestic load shift, launching its first time-of-use tariffs in 2018. It launched "Intelligent Octopus" in 2021, a product for actively managing customer demand and saving several hundred dollars per customer per year. Intelligent Octopus, powered by Kraken's SmartFlex platform, has grown to become the world's largest managed charging fleet, consisting of 140,000 connected devices, equivalent to 900MW of controllable load.

In this Load Management Dialogue, Octopus will share its journey creating customer products around load shifting, how it applies this in the US and other countries, and learnings for mobilizing greater amounts of connected load.

Wood Mackenzie has estimated the U.S. could have up to 380GW of DERs connected to the grid as soon as 2025, which represents tens of millions of new DERs. PLMA has invited two industry experts to help us explore the outlook for 2024, including opportunities and challenges they will be watching closely in the year ahead. Join us to learn more about: 

• policy and regulatory changes that may affect DR and DERs
• the role of VPPs in meeting peak demand
• the evolving role of utilities
• the growing impact of EVs
• accounting for decarbonization
• the influence of global events 
• and more!

Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) received PLMA's Technology Pioneer Award this Spring for their work partnering with rooftop solar customers to accelerate their transition to the renewable grid of the future. The Wattsmart Battery Program innovation journey started in 2017 as a partnership between the utility (RMP),  local developer and RMP customer The Wasatch Group, and Sonnen, a battery manufacturer. Together, they worked through policy and technical constraints to install over 600 batteries powered by solar to supply electricity to a 600-unit apartment complex called Soleil Lofts. 

The scalable Wattsmart Battery Program includes:

• Development of a Battery Grid Management System (BGMS) in partnership with Sonnen that allows RMP to connect with and dispatch customer-owned batteries to keep the power grid stable and avoid power outages.
  
  
• A BGMS that's connected to the western energy grid and automatically reacts in real-time (within 50 seconds), based on system needs. 
  
  
• A Virtual Power Plant resource in partnership with Sonnen that allows thousands of small batteries to be controlled as a group, transforming distributed residential solar power into the equivalent of one large power plant resource.

Join us to learn more about this innovative program, RMP's lessons learned, and its recommendations for others working on solar and battery initiatives.