300+ load management professionals register from across North America to participate in peer-reviewed sessions, plus multiple learning, networking, and engagement opportunities.

Plainfield, IN – November 10, 2020 - PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) opened its 42nd PLMA Conference yesterday featuring a highly interactive, four-day online learning and networking experience. With registrations exceeding 300, PLMA will continue to welcome new attendees during the event which runs through Thursday, November 12, 2020.

The 42nd PLMA Conference includes eighteen curated and peer-selected sessions, both live and on-demand. It also offers four networking events hosted on a user-friendly platform that enables one-click video meetings, chats, voice calls, and the exchange of contact information among attendees.

“What makes this PLMA Conference unique is a combination of the high quality, peer-evaluated content PLMA is known for, together with the welcoming community experience that has always been part of PLMA’s in-person events,” said PLMA Chair Michael Brown. “PLMA remains committed to enhancing our online capabilities and presence as we continue to address the advanced learning and networking needs of load management practitioners everywhere.”

About the PLMA Conference
Twice a year, PLMA hosts a conference gathering for load management professionals who work for utilities, technology innovators, solutions providers, trade allies, and regulators from across the U.S., and increasingly, around the world.

The 42nd PLMA Conference agenda includes eighteen peer-evaluated sessions selected from a pool of 45+ submitted abstracts. More than 50 speakers and presenters will share their knowledge and experiences with flexible demand management, distributed energy resources, pricing, customer engagement, program successes and lessons learned, plus the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19. With over 110 first-time attendees and a format that encourages conversations, connections, networking, and business opportunities, PLMA is proud to serve as the voice of load management.

Click here for More Information and Registration

PLMA Announces it 2021-2022 Board Election Results

PLMA’s November board meeting, historically held on the eve of its Fall conference, occurred this year on November 2, 2020. The organization announced the results of its recent elections for the eight positions that make up its Executive Committee. The 2021-2022 governing body includes the following industry professionals, who will begin their two-year Executive Committee term on January 1, 2021:

About PLMA
PLMA is a 501(c)(6) non-profit association founded in 1999 that serves 167 member organizations as the Voice of Load Management Practitioners. PLMA 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, the LinkedIn PLMA Group page, and on Twitter @PLMAdr.

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

Background
PacifiCorp, operating as Pacific Power in OR, WA, and CA and Rocky Mountain Power in UT, ID and WY, is seeking information from interested suppliers in anticipation of issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Implementation of Direct Load Control Demand Response (DR) Programs in January 2021. Specifically, PacifiCorp wants to support the creation of a broad list of qualified primary bidders from interested suppliers that are capable of implementing demand response programs which deliver seasonal and/or year-round demand reductions (kW) within PacifiCorp's service territory, with a primary focus on Oregon and Washington. Suppliers interested in subcontracting to a primary supplier may be added to a subcontractor list as a result of their response.

A small (1MW) irrigation pilot program operates in Oregon, but no other DR programs are operational in Pacific Power states. Rocky Mountain Power has experience in the economic dispatch of nearly 475 MW of DR capability in Utah and Idaho in the form of direct load control of customer irrigation pumps and residential and small commercial air conditioning equipment. These load control resources are designed to lower summer peak demand by directly curtailing or shifting load to off peak hours and most recently, are being used for automated frequency regulation.

The 2019 IRP Preferred Portfolio identified the addition of 178 MW of DR system wide by 2029 along with 595 MW of energy storage co-located with 1,823 MW solar, and 1,920 MW wind by 2023 as the major resource additions of a least cost least risk long term resource plan. To acquire these resources, the company issued the All Source 2020 RFP on July 7, 2020 for large scale resources and plans to release a DR RFP in late January for Oregon and Washington DR programs.

PacifiCorp’s primary objective with the RFP will be to acquire cost-effective DR programs to be delivered as a turnkey resource. Programs may target any customer type (residential, commercial, industrial, irrigation) and end-use application. However, of most interest to PacifiCorp are programs which target:

1. Oregon and Washington service territories,
2. Large commercial and industrial customers for a variety of end uses,
3. Residential and small commercial smart thermostats or water heaters,
4. Irrigation

In addition, PacifiCorp may select some RFP responses targeting Oregon customers, which initially may not be cost-effective, to design a pilot program. The goal of these pilots will be to test improving a key assumption in the program design to increase the long-term cost effectiveness and scalability of the program.

Please send any questions regarding this RFQ to: [email protected].

To be considered for inclusion on the bidders' list of the forthcoming RFP or the Subcontractors List for Interest in providing Demand Response Support services, please complete the following information and email the table below to the following: [email protected] on or before Monday, November 23rd.

 CLICK HERE to read the full RFQ.

Open Access Technology International, Inc. (OATI) announces the go-live of the webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ to the city of Flora to modernize the city’s meter infrastructure.

Minneapolis, MN: October 20, 2020 - OATI is pleased to announce full production operations of the webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ to the City of Flora. AMIoT™ modernizes the city’s meter infrastructure, providing situational awareness, remote disconnect and reconnect, outage alerting, and other critical information. The AMIoT™ head end is hosted in the OATI Private Cloud data centers, accessed through a web browser. AMIoT™ leverages the LoRaWAN standard, which is an open, long range wireless communications network protocol. Just three LoRa gateways provide coverage over the city’s territory, and communicate with LoRa endpoints. Flora’s LoRa-enabled electric meters are provided by Vision Metering, LLC. The LoRa network can also be expanded to other LoRa devices for demand response, smart city, and other use cases.

“AMIoT™ is truly a next generation platform that makes advanced meter infrastructure, demand management, and Smart City functions accessible to all types of users,” says Dr. Sasan Mohktari, President and CEO of OATI. “We are excited to partner with the City of Flora to showcase what is possible.”

City of Flora Superintendent Toby Reinhart provided the following:

“I would like to share our experiences with OATI. Early last year we at the City of Flora decided to start investigating the purchase of an AMI Meter reading setup for our electric meters. We sent our project out for bid and had the chance to talk with OATI about their bid. They offered to “Customize” our head-in software and develop options for us for anything we wanted do or see on our system. They partnered with Vision Metering to create what we believe will be the industry leading AMI software. Since day one, OATI has been persistently in contact with our team members in every decision made on our customized AMI software. The OATI team is extremely organized and knowledgeable in the development of our software as well as the security of this software. We believe that the OATI team is second to none. We look forward to our official upcoming launch date.”

About OATI
OATI provides innovative solutions that simplify, streamline, and empower the operational tasks required in today’s energy commerce and Smart Grid. Serving more than 2,200 customers in North America, OATI successfully deploys and hosts diverse mission-critical solutions committed to industry standards and stringent security guidelines.

OATI (www.oati.com) is a leading provider of Smart Grid, Energy Trading and Risk Management, Transmission Scheduling, Congestion Management, Distribution, and Market Management products and services. OATI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with offices in California, Punjab, Telangana, and Singapore. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Open Access Technology International, Inc. (OATI) announces City of Metropolis (METRO) has chosen OATI's webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ Service for its distribution electrical and water metering points.

Minneapolis, MN: October 20, 2020 - OATI is pleased to announce that the City of Metropolis (METRO) has chosen OATI AMIoT™ for their new Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system. The AMIoT™ Head End system will collect, process, disseminate, and present electric and water meter readings from 3,500 meters across its municipal area. Central to this solution is the ability for the AMIoT™ system to read ERT meters. This capability enables the City to extend the life of their existing ERT meters allowing for a gradual meter replacement plan.

OATI webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ is an IoT-based AMI solution that utilizes a LoRa-based network for the communication backhaul, encompassing the non-proprietary Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) open protocol that provides bidirectional communications to the LoRa meters, and other devices, on the IoT network all orchestrated by the AMIoT™ Head End.

OATI webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ is a highly cost-effective solution that also offers great flexibility to support a variety of use cases beyond AMI. The LoRa network takes advantage of open wireless and messaging communication protocols that allows utilities to add a multitude of LoRa-based devices such as smart agriculture, asset tracking, distribution automation, load management, and other sensing and control devices on the same network.

Under this webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ project, METRO will deploy a LoRa-based, two-way communication network, across its territory. OATI will initially provide propagation services, in order to identify where low-cost LoRa gateways, which communicate with meters and other field assets in a “star of stars” configuration, should be placed for maximum read efficiency. METRO will be able to read their existing electric and water meters enabled with ERT modules through the LoRA network, eliminating the need to replace meter hardware, and reducing overall project cost. Concurrently, OATI will deploy the webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ Head-End solution, fully integrated to the customer’s Customer Care and Billing, and other solutions to communicate with and control the LoRa gateways, meters, and modules. The OATI webSmartEnergy AMIoT™ service will be provided in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, hosted within the OATI Private Cloud.

“We are extremely excited about the deployment of the OATI advanced metering infrastructure system,” said Mayor Billy McDaniel. Mayor McDaniel noted that the OATI and its service were chosen by the city for its experience in providing a top quality products and service. “OATI came highly recommended by our own engineers and other municipal officials we know and trust,” stated the mayor.

“We are happy to welcome the City of Metropolis into our growing list of AMIoT™ customers,” said Dr. Sasan Mokhtari, President and CEO of OATI. “We truly believe that this project will help set the bar for what advanced metering solutions can offer, from both a financial and technological standpoint.”

About METRO
The City of Metropolis, IL utility division is a municipal utility that provides energy services to approximately 3,500 customers. Throughout their municipal service territory, METRO serves approximately 3,400 electric meters and 100 water meters. Learn more at https://www.metropolisil.gov/.

About OATI
OATI provides innovative solutions that simplify, streamline, and empower the operational tasks required in today’s energy commerce and Smart Grid. Serving more than 2,200 customers in North America, OATI successfully deploys and hosts diverse mission-critical solutions committed to industry standards and stringent security guidelines. OATI (www.oati.com) is a leading provider of Smart Grid, Energy Trading and Risk Management, Transmission Scheduling, Congestion Management, Distribution, and Market Management products and services. OATI is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with offices in California, Punjab, Telangana, and Singapore. For more information, please contact [email protected].