Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and BMW are to collaborate in a pilot programme to test the potential for electric vehicle (EV) batteries to provide services to the electric grid.
During the 18-month-programme, BMW will provide at least 100KW to PG&E’s demand response management services.
UK Power Networks (UKPN) has contracted independent supplier SmartestEnergy for its energy storage project in Leighton Buzzard, UK.
SmartestEnergy will take over commercial control of the Smarter Network Storage (SNS) project and explore shared services with UKPN.
“Working with UK Power Networks will give us invaluable experience in the operation of storage technology, which will be key to managing intermittency as renewable generation increasingly contributes to meeting UK energy demand in the future,” said Robert Groves, Chief Executive Officer at SmartestEnergy.
The project near London will provide frequency regulation as well as load shifting using a 6MW lithium-ion battery to regulate the electricity distribution network.
UKPN also awarded demand response management firm Kiwi Power to manage the interface with National Grid to provide ancillary services that help support the stability of the electricity system nationwide.
“Although not as tangible as the storage facility itself, the development of these commercial arrangements represent a really important development for the project and will help provide a model for the future operation of storage,” said Nick Heyward, UKPN project director for SNS.
The SNS project was awarded funding of £13.2m from the Low Carbon Networks Fund. A two-year-trial is set to start by the end of this year.
The global smart demand response (DR) market is to increase to $51m by 2015, according to a study by Transparency Market Research.
The report “Smart Demand Response Market By End User - Residential, Commercial, and Industrial) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2014 – 2025” forecasts that growing power demands will foster installations of smart grid technologies, including smart meters and communication systems.
Policies by governments will also be a driving factor that will stimulate growth and investments in the global DR market, states the report.
Although the price of DR programmes and limited awareness of them by energy consumers are likely to depress the growth, technological advancements will further accelerate the market.
The industrial end-user segment will dominate the DR market, despite the residential end-user segment is expected to grow at the highest rate in the future.
DR programmes are designed primarily to shift or curtail load for a short period of time and allow customers control of loads.
At the moment, the US is dominating the DR market by 80%, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific.
This week, the Californian government signed a DR legislation to increase DR management programmes in the state and in order to meet the growing electricity need.
The study can be downloaded here: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/smart-demand-response.html
California’s Governor Jerry Brown has passed a demand response (DR) legislation that accelerates the use of DR programmes in the state.
DR programmes enable energy consumers to manage their consumption in an energy efficient and cost-effective way. The bill is also aimed to help the Californian state to meet its growing electricity needs.
The Public Utilities Commission now can consider demand response management in planning how to balance and ensure reliability for the state's power grid. Currently, DR programmes are administered by California’s three regulated investor-owned utilities: Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric. The utilities also rely on third-party operators to enroll customers in certain DR programmes.
"Demand response programs will not only enable Californians to get rebates in exchange for reducing their electricity use during times of peak energy demand, but will reduce the need for costly and polluting power plants that run only when there is peak demand for electricity,” said Senator Lois Wolk, author of the bill.
"As California continues to modernize its power grid and grow its economy, EDF hopes to see the rest of the nation follow suit to advance the innovative technologies needed to create cleaner, more efficient, and more affordable power," said EDF attorney and California senior manager Lauren Navarro-Treichler.
Power supplier EDF was lobbying for bill 1414 and emphasised the need to build a more resilient low-carbon electricity system.
Britain’s smart-grid company Reactive Technologies has launched a cloud-based demand-side management (DSM) service for commercial and industrial electricity customers.
The so-called Tradenergy service is designed to manage energy consumption in a flexible and profitable way, offering recurring “risk-free” revenue streams without long-term contracts with aggregators participating in the Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR).
The DSM service uses software control to shift energy demands of each consumer in order to minimise energy consumption and enable consumers to benefit from other revenue sources.
According to Oxford-based Reactive Technologies, the Tradenergy technology increases the responsiveness and reduces operational impact by remotely optimising how and when individual electrical assets consume power.
“We believe the only cost- effective way of preventing the UK’s lights going off due to shrinking capacity margins is to focus on allowing end customers to be better prepared for the future by enabling flexibility of how and when energy is used," said Marc Borret, CEO and founder of Reactive Technologies. "Not just when the grid operator calls for it during times of grid stress or peak demand,” he added.
The company said that the DSM service replaces the need of backup diesel generators.
A study by Navigant Research forecasts that the demand response load curtailment in Europe will grow from 30.8GW in 2014 to 196.7GW in 2023.
California-based commercial and industrial energy storage provider Stem has secured up to $100m working capital to finance its 'no upfront cost' installations.
The $100m funding is being provided through affiliates of B Asset Manager, an investment adviser based in New York City.
Siemens has struck a deal with US service provider Direct Energy to install its demand response management system (DRMS).
Direct Energy will manage the existing load commitments in several independent system operators (ISO) with Siemens’s DRMS. The DRMS are designed to control power usage and to help managing power demand requirements particularly during peak times.
The DRMS is to be integrated with sub-metering devices located at each Direct Utility account and to collect consumption data. The service provider will then use the data to determine the amount of energy it needs to transact into the marketplace.
"The flexibility of Siemens DRMS to provide automated interfaces to multiple ISO systems will allow Direct Energy to operate their portfolio in a more streamlined and efficient manner and will improve reliability for all of their customers," said Craig Cavanaugh, director of Siemens Smart Grid Applications and Solutions. “By leveraging the forecasting and analytics engine embedded in Siemens DRMS, Direct Energy will be able to optimize the market based transactions,” he added.
The deal will enable Direct Energy to deploy its demand reduction and demand management programs throughout the US and Canada. The company has more than six million residential and commercial customers.
Germany-based Siemens said that the US-contract is its biggest demand response project so far.
Energy storage startup Stem is to supply its distributed energy storage devices to the California independent system operator (ISO) market.
Stem combines behind-the-meter energy storage and real-time data analytics for commercial and industrial business. The pilot project between California ISO and Stem provides to bring various distributed storage systems together as one resource and feed it into a demand response system. With aggregating these power resources, the company will be able to dispatch power to the Californian grid in situations of high demand, without impacting customers’ operations, according to Stem.
Market researcher Navigant Research has stated in a report that the worldwide revenue for demand response (DR) programmes will grow from $1.6 billion in 2014 to $9.7 billion in 2023.
The report concluded that North America will remain the largest DR market but growth is accelerating internationally. By 2023, the global capacity of DR systems will grow to 196.7GW according to the report.
Several European countries are changing their electricity market structures, providing more possibilities for DR to compete successfully against traditional electricity generation, Navigant Research stated.
The changing resource mix in electric grids globally is increasing the potential for DR systems to play a key role in conserving energy use and maintaining grid stability. General economic market factors such as natural gas prices, coal and nuclear retirements affect the growth of DR as well. Since 2010, DR systems are making their way in the electricity market and compete against traditional electricity generation. Also the DR market in Asian Pacific countries is growing.
“Technology advances in metering, controls, and end-use devices are making it easier for customers to participate in DR programs and manage their energy usage”, said Brett Feldman, senior research analyst at Navigant Research.
The report focuses on commercial/industrial and residential sectors. An executive summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website: http://www.navigantresearch.com/research/demand-response
Worldwide spending on automated demand response systems will grow from $13m in 2014 to $185.5m by 2023, according to market analysis.
In a new report, Navigant Research forecasts increased automated demand response (ADR) system adoption in world regions where new market sectors such as ancillary services – for example, reserve and regulation – are opening up to demand response. The report points to the changing resource mix in electric grids around the world – specifically the growing adoption of intermittent renewable energy sources requiring backup power – as creating increased potential for demand response to play a pivotal role.
However, barriers to ADR adoption also exist, including users’ continuing desire for control, security issues, production concerns in the case of industrial facilities and comfort concerns for commercial buildings or households.
The report also points out that, depending on the level of existing energy management systems in a facility, costs for ADR could be relatively small and involve little to no hardware installation, or they could require extensive control installations and lots of integration with existing systems, so a cost/benefit analysis is required.
Almost all current ADR activity is centred in the US, but this leadership position will erode over the next 10 years according to Navigant. Asia Pacific is predicted to overtake North America in ADR capacity and spending after 2020, while Europe’s growth will be slower than Asia Pacific’s but faster than North America’s, the report said.
“Demand response is a growing part of the resource base that electric system operators use to maintain grid reliability, and automated DR greatly extends the reach and capability of the technology,” said Brett Feldman, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “Much of the basic technology for ADR exists today, and to a large extent, ADR adoption will depend more on market forces than on technical advances.”
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