Posted May 24, 2023

Hawaiian Electric Company (“Company”) seeks proposals to deliver qualified Grid Services from customer-sited distributed energy resources for the Hawaiian Electric system on Maui.   Proposers’ offerings must include the delivery of Capacity Reduction Grid Services in their proposal but may also include Capacity Build as a bundled Grid Service. The Company is issuing this RFP in response to the Public Utilities Commission approval (Order No. 38784 issued on December 22, 2022, under Docket No. 2017-0352) to seek up to 20MW of capacity reduction grid service.

The Company intends to contract for Grid Services through this RFP using its Model Grid Services Purchase Agreement (“GSPA”).  The term of any GSPA executed with selected Proposer(s) will be ten (10) years.

The Company is seeking to maximize the amount of capability to be available for use by the Commercial Operations Date (COD), January 1, 2026.  In addition, the Company is looking to gain more reliability on the Maui grid. Thus there are desired areas that the Company is looking to enroll participants..  Proposals that include enrollment of participants in those areas will get preference in evaluation.  The Company is also looking for proposals that include adherence to IEEE 2030.5-2018 and will also get preference in evaluation.

To submit a proposal, you must register as a “Supplier” in Power Advocate’s Sourcing Intelligence to access the RFP event. For more information regarding registration for Power Advocate, please see Appendices B and D in the RFP. Once you have successfully registered as a “Supplier” with Power Advocate, please request access to the RFP event from the Company via email ([email protected]). After you have been added to the event, you will receive an invitation to the RFP event at the registered Email account.   If you have previously registered and already have access to Power Advocate, you will still need to send your information via the Company email to get an invitation to participate in the bid event.

Once you access the bid event, you can access all the submission documentation and send messages through the Power Advocate platform.  All communication for the RFP process shall be through Power Advocate.

Questions for the RFP are due by June 30, 2023, through PowerAdvocate.  The Company’s response to those questions will be sent through Power Advocate by July 21, 2023.

CLICK HERE to read the full RFP.

Posted May 24, 2023

Who’ll You Be Joining: 

We are looking for a Sales Manager in the US East Coast who believes that Business Development and Energy are critical in helping achieve clean energy goals.  You will work with a passionate group of Energy professionals that serve the largest Utilities in North America. The sales team is responsible for the growth of ecobee within the energy channel primarily focused on the North American Utility sector.  What makes a great Sales Manager is the ability to understand the value ecobee can provide our partners and prioritize opportunities accordingly to make the biggest impact!

How You’ll Make an Impact:

• In this role, you will play an integral part in building the hardware and software business for the utility channel at ecobee. By understanding the business drivers of our partners, you will work collaboratively with the Energy Customer Success team to identify opportunities within existing ecosystem partnerships and identify new partnership opportunities that help ecobee to increase market share within the energy channel.
• Understand funding sources for utility programs and create a sales and partnership plan to maximize sales.  Work collaboratively with the regulatory team to advocate ecobee’s position and remove barriers to execution.
• Own the end-to-end sales funnel development by working with the regulatory and product team to identify and manage “top of the funnel” opportunities all the way through to completion through the hand-off to the Customer Success team.
• Manage sales operations to include contracting, Salesforce management, and hardware budgeting and forecasting.  Provide input into long-range planning efforts.  Create proposals and respond to RFPs.
• Attend and represent ecobee as a thought leader at industry conferences.  Provide market intelligence to internal stakeholders that can improve product performance or new product features.

What You’ll Bring to the Table:

• You’re an experienced Sales Professional with several years of experience in Utility hardware or software Sales.
• You have experience with utility demand management programs, preferably specific to smart technology and understand how the space is evolving.
• You pride yourself on working with integrity and being part of a team, knowing that we are stronger working together than alone.
• Proven track record of working with cross functional groups and departments 
• You like to think big picture and strategically while still being able to manage the day to day details
• Flexible, able to work in a fluid environment 
• Strong written, organizational, communication and oral presentation skills 
• Build and sustain strong internal/external business relationships 
• International (US and Canada) travel required up to 50%
• Just so you know: The hired candidate will be required to complete a background check

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

OATI webSmartEnergy^® DERMS platform fulfills energy company's demand response needs

Posted May 23, 2023

Minneapolis, MN — May 23, 2023 — Open Access Technology International, Inc. (OATI) is pleased to announce that it has successfully deployed its award-winning, innovative demand response management system (DRMS) Platform, webSmartEnergy® DRMS, at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). One of three major investor-owned utilities in California, SDG&E serves about 3.7 million customers in Southern California. OATI’s DRMS is fully integrated to both SDG&E back-office systems as well as the CAISO market, and will support a portfolio of demand response use cases, automate many previously manual processes, and reduce IT complexity for the utility.

“Deployed and integrated with SDG&E’s SAP Customer Information System, among other back-office systems, our solution provides a single platform to manage, forecast, schedule and dispatch events and calculate settlements and reports for flexible demand resources, as well as position SDG&E to add new DR and DER programs and assets in the future,” says Sasan Mokhtari, Ph.D., OATI President and CEO. “The solution also includes a comprehensive portal for SDG&E customers and aggregators to enroll and participate in SDG&E Demand Response programs. These seamless, automated capabilities, in turn, reduce integration complexities, technical debt, and ongoing support responsibilities within SDG&E.”

OATI implemented its suite of products as a turnkey Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, hosted from the OATI Cloud, featuring the Energy Industry-dedicated and NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) compliant Data Centers. The deployed solution complements existing SDG&E planning, operational, and enterprise tools and systems, and provides capabilities to close functional and operational silos and gaps.

“We are proud to strengthen our relationship with SDG&E as we provide expertise to better serve their customers, their CAISO requirements, and meet their sustainable and renewable energy goals,” adds Dr. Mokhtari. “This configurable solution empowers SDG&E to optimally employ demand response and sustainable, distributed energy resources to provide economic and reliability benefits to its customers.”

CLICK HERE to read the full press release. 

OATI webSmartEnergy^® DERMS platform fulfills NISC Co-op Partner Program Goals

Posted May 22, 2023

Minneapolis, MN — May 6, 2023 — Open Access Technology International, Inc. (OATI) is pleased to announce its partnership with National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC). OATI has integrated its innovative webSmartEnergy^® DERMS solution with NISC’s Marketing solution, Multi-Channel Messenger, Meter Data Management and SmartHub in the recently launched DERMS Integration Partner Program. NISC selected OATI as its first partner in the program.

“We are grateful for the business opportunities NISC has entrusted to us over many years to empower their member utilities to use the best technology possible to deliver strategic programs with their consumers and to optimize distributed energy resources, such as solar, wind, battery storage, EVs and smart devices,” says Sasan Mokhtari, Ph.D., OATI President and CEO. “We are very honored for NISC to select us as the first partner in its DERMS Integration Partner program, and the relationship that we have built together to provide their member owners with mission-critical solutions such webSmartEnergy^® DERMS.”

As part of the program, OATI will offer its webSmartEnergy DERMS suite of products, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution technologies, hosted from the OATI Cloud, for NISC member utility use. The OATI Cloud features the Energy Industry dedicated and NERC Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) compliant Data Centers for optimal security and reliability. 

“We’re excited to partner with OATI to offer our Members a turnkey solution to integrate DER into our existing enterprise solutions,” says Walt Hillis, Product Manager for NISC. “By integrating with an industry-leading DERMS solution, our Members will be able to leverage the NISC solutions they use every day to engage their communities in DER programs."

In addition to OATI’s industry-leading webSmartEnergy^® DERMS,  OATI also offers GridMind™, the industry’s premier microgrid controller; OATI webSmartIoT™ a connected-devices platform enabling both smart utilities and smart cities with a wide variety of high-value use cases over an open standards based network including AMI; and OATI EVolution™, the Smart EV charging management solution. All are natively integrated with a webSmartEnergy DERMS.

CLICK HERE to read the full press release.