Assessment of Strategy and Execution for 15 Home Energy Management Solutions Providers

Home energy management (HEM) is a broad market of technologies and services with the primary purpose of providing information for homeowners to better manage and control their home energy consumption and production. Energy management has become an essential part of the digitization of the home, particularly for those who have invested in smart homes, acquired distributed energy resources (DER), or participated in power generation programs such as virtual power plants (VPP).

The information on energy use and production can come from monitors installed within the residence or be derived from smart meter reads. When the local utility works with an HEM vendor to analyze the usage information to prepare home energy reports, the utility is also able to obtain information that enables customer engagement (CE) programs to create highly customized programs. Such programs dramatically improve customer satisfaction scores, lower costs, and provide the data needed for demand side management (DSM) programs that assist in the transition to more renewable energy.

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PLMA Members receive a 10% discount on this report. If you are interested in purchasing and are a PLMA member, contact Brett Feldman at [email protected].

The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC) should turn to customer-side solutions like demand response, energy efficiency and distributed energy resources, as well as streamline interconnection processes to prepare for the retirement of a 180 MW coal plant in Oahu, several parties recommended in comments last week.

Regulators in the state are concerned that delays to a series of renewables projects could force Hawaiian Electric (HECO) to rely on fossil fuel generation after the plant retires in 2022. Last month, the commission opened a rulemaking to review HECO's interconnection processes and plans for that transition.

HECO plans to retire two fossil fuel plants in the next few years that currently play a key role in grid reliability — the Oahu coal plant, which serves around 15% of demand on Oahu, as well as the 38 MW oil-fired Kahului plant on Maui, which is scheduled to close down in 2024. The utility also intends to shutter two units of an oil-fired plant in Waiau, also on Oahu, as soon as possible.

HECO plans to replace these plants with a combination of solar and storage resources, including the 185 MW Kapolei energy storage project, which is supposed to come online in summer 2022. But regulators are worried about delays to many of these projects, which stakeholders say are caused by HECO's interconnection processes. And because the Kapolei project is scheduled to come online before the others — pending regulatory approval — it would initially charge off fossil fuel generation, another area of concern for the commission.

In comments filed with the PUC last week, some parties pointed to demand-side solutions that could help address potential shortfalls after the plants' closures. Automated demand response programs especially could both help stabilize the grid and reduce customers bills, GridPoint, an energy efficiency and demand response provider, said in comments. GridPoint can currently provide between 4 kW and 50 kW of on-demand capacity for each of the commercial sites it manages for up to four-hour periods; but if required, the company said it could increase that to 8 kW to 80 kW for shorter periods ranging from 15 minutes to an hour.

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While the unpredictable nature of using solar as a renewable energy source presents a challenge, new technology is helping address that imbalance. Hawaiian Electric has partnered with leading innovator, Shifted Energy, to outfit homes throughout our service territories with intelligent water heater meters.

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The COVID-19-driven energy flow shift toward the residential sector added urgency to the energy industry’s digital transformation. In 2021, stakeholders understand that remote customer engagement (RCE), which inherently relies on virtual interaction and embraces digitization, will likely last well beyond the pandemic. Opportunities for RCE primarily target residential customers and include revamped home energy reports (HERs), remote audits, and thermal mapping. These solutions are matched by developments, such as augmented reality (AR), designed to remotely engage commercial and industrial (C&I) customers. This report explores how emerging digital opportunities are expected to expand following the pandemic and recommends that utilities and their partners position themselves for a virtually engaged customer of the future.

Inherent in true RCE is the absence of workers and electricians present on end-customers’ properties to interconnect complex DER ecosystems to the utility grid. Remote engagement strategies take advantage of those devices already present. Where there is an absence of DER, RCE strategies can catalyze the customer journey and demonstrate the benefits of relevant DER-related solutions from smart thermostats to fleet electrification and automated behind-the-meter (BTM) asset management.

CLICK HERE to read more or purchase the report.

PLMA Members receive a 10% discount on this report. If you are interested in purchasing and are a PLMA member, contact Brett Feldman at [email protected].