Partnership Focuses on Innovative Winter Demand Response Programs Using Baseboard Heating

Posted August 28, 2024

August 26, 2024; Louisville, KY—Virtual Peaker, a cloud-based, grid-edge distributed energy technology company that empowers utilities to build the grid of the future and meet global decarbonization goals, is proud to announce a collaborative partnership and technology integration with Mysa, a market leader in smart control for electric heating systems. 

More and more utilities are preparing to manage electricity demand peaks in winter in addition to summer, especially in cold climates with a high penetration of electric heat. By controlling the energy consumption of Mysa’s thermostats connected to baseboard heating, Virtual Peaker expands the accessibility of utility demand management programs to residents in buildings without forced air heating systems. Allowing more customers to participate in demand management programs with their Mysa devices supports:

• Equity since baseboard heating is often in smaller and sometimes older residences 
• Benefits to customers that may have been previously ineligible due to their heating system to participate in programs that offer financial incentives 
• Whole home optimization because commands are sent to each Mysa device in a household

“Virtual Peaker’s grid-edge technology, combined with Mysa’s innovative smart thermostat solutions, provides a seamless and efficient way for utilities to manage winter demand peaks and contribute to a more sustainable energy future,” said Virtual Peaker Founder and CEO William Burke, PhD. 

“Mysa is thrilled to partner with Virtual Peaker to leverage our smart home energy management technology to build a better future for our planet,” said Joshua Green, Cofounder and CEO at Mysa. “Empowering electric baseboard heating to participate in demand management programs supports equitable eligibility and expands the scale of utility grid modernization.”

Since December 2023, three utility programs, one in the Pacific Northwest and two in Eastern Canada that use Virtual Peaker’s distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) added Mysa’s smart thermostats to their portfolio of devices. 

CLICK HERE to read the full press release.

Posted August 28, 2024

Position Description

Seattle City Light’s Customer Energy Solutions Division is hiring a Research & Evaluation Analyst. The Division is looking for a Research and Evaluation Analyst who will complete a two-person evaluation team in the Strategy, Planning, and Evaluation group. Research enables City Light to stay on top of emerging opportunities, and evaluation entails rigorous review, monitoring, and verification of energy program impacts and other information. This position reports to the Strategy, Planning and Evaluation Manager.
 
Seattle City Light, a department of the City of Seattle, is one of the nation’s largest municipally owned utilities in terms of the number of customers served. Over the years we have worked very hard to keep Seattle's electricity affordable, reliable, and environmentally sound. Today, City Light is a recognized national leader in energy efficiency and environmental stewardship.

Job Responsibilities

Here is more about what you’ll be doing:  

• Serve as project manager and conduct evaluation of energy efficiency, renewables, demand response, affordability, and electrification programs. Plan and conduct analyses, and interpret, prepare, and present statistical reports substantiating evaluations in support of department programs and activities. 
• Manage large consultant contracts. Define scope of work, coordinate RFP processes, participate in selection and manage the work of independent contractors.
• Provide recommendations to modify and/or continue programs, pilots, and regulations.
• Present findings in orally and in writing.
• Provide technical assistance to design teams and planning committees.

CLICK HERE to view the job opportunity and apply.

Posted August 28, 2024

The U.S. federal goal to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 appears increasingly out of reach as we near the halfway point of the “Decisive Decade” in the fight against climate change. Despite the challenges in reaching those goals, an expanding set of tools and technologies can dramatically accelerate decarbonization.

Mass electrification — the strategy of converting fossil-fuel technologies to their electric counterparts powered by clean energy — touches all sectors of society and is the foundation of a more rapid energy transition. That is because emissions from the commercial and residential sectors are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases in the U.S.

This whitepaper explores:

• Challenges to utility-scale clean energy
• The promise of home electrification and DERs
• The process of translating home  electrification into reality
• The role of smart panels in equitable home electrification

CLICK HERE to download the report.

Posted August 23, 2024

BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Copper Labs, a utility hardware and software company whose patented solutions enable true interoperability for electric, gas and water meters, announced an upgraded web-based portal that provides unparalleled grid-edge visibility and deep customer engagement. This centralized and user-friendly resource lets utilities see near-real-time data from existing meters in their territory in a filterable map-based interface, allows for sophisticated and personalized customer outreach, and makes it easy to create behavioral load flexibility events in the moments that matter most.

"Virtually all other grid-edge solutions currently face significant hardware limitations, including reliance on expensive smart meters and the widespread use of proprietary communication networks," says Dan Forman, CEO of Copper. "Utilities shouldn't be held captive by a single meter type or vendor to get the visibility they need. Copper is the only solution that unlocks data from a wide array of meters, uses robust existing broadband networks, and facilitates a practical and cost-effective path to digital transformation for all utilities."

Because Copper's portal can uniquely bring together data from a mix of different meter types, vintages, and vendors, it offers unprecedented new opportunities to better understand the impacts of electrification pathways down to the customer level, support distributed energy resource (DER) adoption and management, and accelerate integrated electric and gas system planning efforts by making it easier to compare consumption data across resources. "With our powerful new portal, utilities can easily see trends across their territories or focus on particular areas of interest, such as neighborhoods where growing EV adoption may strain local distribution transformers," says Forman.

CLICK HERE to read the full press release.