Posted May 13, 2024

Interested in joining a growing company where you will work with talented colleagues, enhance a supportive and energetic culture, and be part of the climate solution? At Energy Solutions, we focus on the big impacts. And we believe that market-based programs can be a powerful force to deliver large-scale energy, carbon, and water-use savings. Since 1995, we’ve harnessed that power to offer proven, performance-based solutions for our utility, government, and institutional customers.

Energy Solutions is currently seeking a full-time Distributed Energy Resources, Senior Project Manager to join our Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) team. In this role you will assist with driving customer participation in programs that incentivize the adoption of demand management technologies, including controls to manage lighting, HVAC, and process loads, heat pump water heaters, electric vehicles, battery storage, and other flexible load technologies. These leading-edge energy technologies are critical in driving our nation’s progress toward a decarbonized grid, and you will play a material role in helping our team make this future a reality. This unique market opportunity, paired with Energy Solutions mission driven approach, creates a perfect environment for individuals who want to have an active voice in shaping the energy future in California and beyond.  

Daily responsibilities include but are not limited to:  

• Managing overall direction, execution, quality control and completion of project deliverables 
• Developing and managing multiple complex project budgets and tasks with minimal oversight  
• Communicating project progress to management and clients 
• Interacting with customers, clients, and external collaborators 
• Conducting market research and data analysis 
• Tracking of industry trends and other market changes that impact demand response
• Contributing to proposal content development efforts 
• Organizing and facilitating in-person meetings, conference calls, and facilitated collaboration sessions 
• Conducting program status meetings, capture escalations, and resolve 

CLICK HERE to view the full job description and to apply.

The solution allows distributed energy resources to be fully utilized, relied upon, and available to stabilize the grid with dependable and precise accuracy.

Posted May 10, 2024

May 7, 2024; Louisville, KY – Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based distributed energy technology company that empowers utilities to build the grid of the future and meet global decarbonization goals, today launched the first-of-its-kind Topline Demand Control solution for utilities. The technology maximizes the potential of distributed energy resources (DERs), ensuring they can effectively provide grid stability, when required, with dependable and precise accuracy.

Topline Demand Control allows utilities to specify and harness an exact amount of demand during a precise period of time while optimizing around device, customer, and program constraints. While traditional virtual power plants (VPPs) manage DERs collectively, Topline Demand Control revolutionizes DER aggregation by optimizing device outputs to achieve an operator-specified load shape. This guarantees precise and predictable load shaping, shifting the paradigm in flexible load management with its ability to provide a variable topline power output—resembling a supply block to grid operators.

“Topline Demand Control brings our aspiration of establishing an authentic virtual peaker plant to fruition. When I founded our company [Virtual Peaker] nine years ago, the ultimate vision was to grant utilities the same level of control over demand as they have over a gas turbine generator,” said Dr. William “Bill” Burke, Founder and CEO of Virtual Peaker. “Topline Demand Control realizes this vision by empowering operators to define their desired load shape during load management events and utilize optimization-based controls to achieve them.”

This solution utilizes AI and machine learning to leverage and optimize control over DERs, starting with batteries and, in the coming months, adding other smart devices like thermostats and EVs to:

• Accurately account for total available DER capacity
• Remove DER event calling uncertainty
• Reliably manage DERs at scale
• Save costs, stack value, and defer system upgrades

CLICK HERE to read the full press release.

Winners of the 2024 PLMA Awards for Innovations in Flexible Load Management Announced at the49th PLMA Conference in
Portland, OR

Posted May 7, 2024

Portland, OR – May 7, 2024 - PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance), the voice of load management practitioners, today announced the winners of its 2024 Awards at the 49^th PLMA Conference. This annual awards program recognizes innovative approaches to flexible load management, honors the practitioners who develop and launch them, and follows up with a detailed exploration of each winner’s work in the form of a 1-hour educational webinar which is offered at no charge to all PLMA and industry stakeholders.

These 2024 Award Winners were selected for the learnings and outcomes of their initiatives:

• Evergy and Oracle for “Transition to Time-of-Use Rates Program”
• Ontario IESO for “Save on Energy Peak Perks Program”
• Bidgely and Avista Utilities for “Bidgely’s UtilityAI Platform Implemented at Avista Utilities”
• Mark Martinez of Southern California Edison for “Lifetime Achievement in Thought Leadership”

“Each spring, PLMA honors load management practitioners who have created ground-breaking incentive programs (‘Pacesetters’), or who have implemented leading-edge technologies (‘Pioneers’), or who have excelled in extraordinary customer engagement (‘Thought Leaders’),” explained PLMA Awards Co-Chair Kevin Knight of Baltimore Gas and Electric. “Their initiatives, successes, and lessons learned provide valuable perspectives for consideration and adaptation by other energy professionals."

“With the involvement of 20 volunteer judges, all of whom are PLMA member practitioners, each award nomination is carefully vetted by a group of industry peers using a rubric methodology,” said PLMA Awards Co-Chair Meg Campbell of Guidehouse. “The award-winning programs each demonstrate effective approaches to meeting peak energy loads while helping to support a stable, DER-integrated electric grid.”

The PLMA Award Series of live webinars will be hosted from June through October 2024, and will also be published on PLMA’s YouTube channel for the benefit of energy professionals everywhere. The webinar schedule will be published on PLMA’s Calendar.

About PLMA
PLMA curates high quality, peer-selected, field-tested information and case studies on flexible load management, demand response, and DERs, for the benefit of energy practitioners globally. A 501(c)(6) non-profit association founded in 1999, PLMA serves over 200 member organizations and many thousands of stakeholders. As the “Voice of Load Management Practitioners,” it seeks to advance practical applications of dynamic load management and distributed energy resources by providing a forum where members educate one another and explore innovative approaches to program delivery, pricing constructs, and technology adoption. Learn more at www.peakload.org and PLMA’s LinkedIn DR/DER Group page.  

Media Contact:
Judy Knight, PLMA
(404) 771-1122
[email protected]

Posted May 2, 2024

The Con Edison Non-Wires Solutions (NWS) team has extended the deadline for our Brooklyn and Queens Energy Storage Incentive for Behind the Meter (BTM) Load Following projects. The Application deadline has been extended from April 30^th, 2024, to September 30^th, 2024. This is for Load Following projects only. The Grid Connected or Front of the Meter (FTM) segment of this incentive has been fully allocated and is now closed.

The incentive rate is $3,000/kW for load following systems that do not require system reinforcements and are used to reduce building load. This Program is designed to encourage systems that will provide direct benefits to customers through demand charge management and can be expeditiously operational without the need for substantive customer interconnection upgrades. The BQDM program offers incentives to customers in eligible Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods for battery energy storage projects which provide load relief during peak demand periods.

Con Edison is seeking BESS projects that are installed and available for operation no later than May 1, 2026. The application period for this initial offering will be open through September 30, 2024 or until Con Edison reaches the enrollment capacity for the Program. Applications will be reviewed, evaluated, and accepted on a rolling, first-come, first-served basis following a project’s completion of Coordinated Electric System Interconnection Review (“CESIR”) study and successful payment of at least 25% of interconnection costs.

The Company will only review submitted applications completed in full that meet all pre-requisites for application including, but not limited to: submission of a complete interconnection application through the Power Clerk web portal, and paying 25% of interconnection costs for the option that meets the local reliability standard of the area in which the project is interconnecting.