New FERC Order expands the reach of demand response

Posted on September 23, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

This past Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled to unify the treatment of distributed energy resources. Up to this point, states could opt-out, banning the participation of distributed resources in the wholesale power markets serving their local customers. What this meant practically for large commercial, industrial, and institutional organizations was that sites in certain states could not capitalize on their operational flexibility. According to Gregg Dixon, Voltus CEO, this historic FERC ruling “eliminates the antiquated local barriers that have prevented these distributed energy resources from delivering and receiving value in every wholesale power market in the United States.” Put simply, states can no longer opt-out.

Jon Wellinghoff, the former FERC Chairman commonly referred to as the “godfather” of demand response, also puts this ruling into perspective. “This ruling is the single most important decision in FERC history. By cementing the place of distributed energy resources in wholesale markets, we have taken a leap toward ensuring reliable grids and a clean energy future.” Wellinghoff, who refers to demand response as the “skeleton key” of the clean energy transition, speaks openly about the need for this balancing resource to allow for the widespread adoption of renewable energy.

Yet our work is not done. It will be 90 days before this ruling is written into law, and wholesale market operators then have up to nine months to submit compliance filings on how to modify the tariffs to enable these resources. Voltus is working closely with the appropriate grid operators to expedite implementation, expanding the financial opportunities for multi-site customers, as well as single-site organizations within these localities. Despite these short-term limitations, Dixon writes that the long term vision for Voltus is clear: “Our team and platform are ready to accelerate the energy transition, unlocking the value of distributed energy resources in every state.”

Interested in cashing in on your operational flexibility? Reach out to our team at info@voltus.co to learn more about the opportunities available to your organization.

Week #6 – Working with multiple CSPs to maximize DR dollars

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Potential Customer: Can my company work with more than one curtailment service provider (CSP) to stack multiple demand response (DR) programs and maximize earnings?

Voltus: Yes. Well … maybe.

Nearly 140 demand response programs exist across North America. Many of these programs are offered exclusively by Voltus while others aren’t offered by Voltus at all. What’s that now?

That’s right, in some cases a DR program is offered only by a utility or even a competing CSP. No matter, Voltus lays out all the options for monetizing your operational flexibility and supports your participation in every program with our technology and services.

Conversely, we often talk to customers who are currently under contract with a different CSP and are interested in contracting with Voltus to cash in on additional programs. Is that allowed?

From Voltus’s perspective, of course. The caveat here is that you need to make sure you are not prevented from doing so under your current CSP’s contract. We always advise customers to make sure that any new program they sign up for at a facility doesn’t preclude them from participating in other programs with other providers. We’ve run into many unfortunate situations where a customer signed up with a CSP and gave them exclusivity over not only a single facility’s ability to participate in DR, but exclusivity over DR for all of their facilities … unbeknownst to them.

So, let’s look at a real world example. Voltus works with a large commercial real estate company with properties throughout the United States. This customer is very sophisticated and wanted to take full advantage of every stackable DR program in the PJM service territory, specifically Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, a customer can take advantage of seven separate demand response programs simultaneously. Unfortunately, the company’s CSP at the time had exclusive rights to all DR programs at each of the company’s facilities under a contract that had been signed three years prior for a five year term. The larger problem was that the CSP only offered two of the seven programs and wouldn’t cooperate in allowing the customer to participate in the other five programs. In fact, the CSP claimed that by tapping into other programs the company was putting their current DR earnings at risk (fake news).

In this particular case, the CSP had enrolled the customer in PJM’s ELRP program and signed them up for economic DR to capture energy payments. As it turns out, the more lucrative option for the customer was a combination of Pennsylvania Act 129 DR, Voltus’s Peak Saver program, and PJM’s synchronized reserves program. We showed the customer that they would more than double their demand response dollars by enrolling in these additional programs. We also helped the customer negotiate away from exclusivity with their original CSP. Amazingly, participation in these additional programs actually increased the company’s earnings in the two original programs – a win-win-win for all parties involved!

Of course, every region is different and every CSP is different so it’s important to dig into the details.

Make sure you’re not limited by current terms and conditions in your DR agreements.
Make sure you’re taking advantage of every stackable DR program.

In the end, the best strategy for you business may be to use two (or more) CSPs. We’re indifferent as long as you’re maximizing your demand response dollars.

Interested in doubling your company’s DR dollars? Email us at info@voltus.co or chat with us below.

Week #5 – Uncovering the Gross Up

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

At Voltus, we talk to hundreds of energy decision makers every day from dozens of industries in every major energy market. Sometimes these organizations are learning about the benefits of demand response for the first time. At other times, we’re connecting with businesses long-steeped in demand response program participation. Our message, regardless of experience, is that it is possible for customers to double their demand response dollars, and one of the easiest ways to contribute to this goal is giving demand response customers their fair share of the “gross-up.”

What the heck is the gross-up!?!

So glad you asked.

The gross-up is industry-speak for the transmission loss factor and operating reserve margin that is applied to electricity demand in wholesale power markets. These concepts impact the value of demand response resources in these same markets.

The bottom line: if you’re not being paid your portion of the gross-up you could be losing 5% to 40% of your demand response dollars depending on year and market.

Let’s look at an example to understand the concept clearly.

You have 1,000 kW of demand response capability at your facility. You contract with a demand response provider to get 65% of the revenue earned from enrolling your load curtailment in the ISO-NE market. At $7.03/kW-month you would expect the gross revenue from the 1,000 kW to be worth $84,360 for power year 2019, which at 65% nets your business $54,834. Pretty good, huh? Yet, your demand response capability is actually more valuable than 1,000 kWs and here’s why.

When power is generated by a natural gas power plant, 7% of that power is lost on average over transmission lines (a 100 MW generator only delivers about 93 MWs of usable electricity to the point of consumption). Additionally, that natural gas power plant isn’t 100% reliable throughout the year, which requires the grid operator to buy, on behalf of the market, what’s called “operating reserve.” Operating reserve averages about 15% of generation capacity (that 100 MW generator requires the grid operator to purchase 115 total MWs of generation). These transmission line losses and operating reserves add up, amounting to an additional 22% in this example.

Demand response capacity behaves differently though since it’s created at the point of consumption. This capacity doesn’t experience transmission line losses and doesn’t require operating reserves. As a result, the grid operator in our example would “gross up” the value of your 1,000 kW demand response capacity by that same 22%. The demand response provider is actually credited with 1,220 kW (1,000 kW plus the 220 kW gross up). In many cases, demand response providers only pay the customer 65% of the “nameplate capacity” (the original 1,000 kW). The additional $18,559 of value that comes from the 220 kW gross-up goes entirely to the demand response provider.

You can do the math to determine the true revenue share, but in this example it amounts to 53% to the customer, not the expected 65%.

Gross-up values can vary significantly by wholesale market, the particular power year, and the customer’s transmission level service. Regardless of the exact value, the gross up is money that shouldn’t be left on the table. If you’ve been doing demand response for a long time and you’re looking to maximize cash from your operational flexibility, ask your demand response provider for your share of the gross up.

At Voltus, we value transparency above all else. Interested in working with us or learning more about the many ways you can double your demand response dollars? Email us at info@voltus.co or chat with us below.

Voltus Announces New DR Opportunities in Massachusetts

Posted on March 24, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Boston, MA – March 24, 2020 – Voltus, Inc. announced today that it has secured an agreement with Cape Light Compact to deliver demand response to commercial, institutional, and industrial customers in Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.

This agreement marks Voltus’s latest partnership to help utilities and energy efficiency program administrators meet regulatory requirements, increase customer satisfaction, and ensure grid security while putting more cash and technology on the table to incentivize customer participation in demand response.

“In the past two years, we’ve secured relationships with more than a dozen major utilities in North America.” said Dana Guernsey, Vice President of Product and Energy Markets at Voltus. “These agreements not only open up revenue streams to energy intensive industries, but strengthen the relationship between the energy efficiency program administrator and its customer base.”

“We are excited to bring on Voltus as a partner in our demand response programs,” said Austin Brandt, Senior Power Supply Planner at Cape Light Compact. “Reducing peak demand benefits all electricity customers, and having Voltus as a partner will facilitate our ability to provide cost-effective demand savings while delivering value to both the businesses participating and all ratepayers.”

With the addition of the Cape Light Company program to Voltus’s CashDash demand response planning app, customers now have close to 150 demand response programs to choose from. Demand response programs, when stacked, can offer more than $500,000 per MW-year in value for eligible customers, depending on their location and operational flexibility.

To sign up or to learn more, email info@voltus.co

About Voltus, Inc.

Voltus represents the “potential of us” to better manage energy through simple, cost and risk-free demand response programs. Our commercial and industrial customers generate cash by allowing us to maximize the value of their operational flexibility in energy markets. It’s this simple: a customer signs up with Voltus and every quarter we deliver dollars. Voltus makes money when our customers make money by sharing the cash generated from working together. What’s more, there are significant community benefits that accompany working with Voltus – a cleaner, more reliable energy future and dollars invested back into your business instead of being wasted on a larger energy bill.

Voltus Media Relations:

Kelly Yazdani
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

Week #4 – Flushing out Phantom Megawatts

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

In the early days of demand response, as grid operators and utilities sought to unlock the potential of this resource, program requirements were understandably light. Advance notice was often day ahead, dispatch windows were Monday through Friday 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., hours of dispatch were limited to 20 hours per year, etc., and rarely was demand response dispatched for anything but an annual test. With such a low barrier of entry, customers signed up in droves. The net effect was quite remarkable as demand response became the fastest growing capacity resource in the US since 2000 with the exception of wind.

As demand response became a larger percentage of the resource stack, grid operators started dispatching these resources regularly, deliberately, and at increasing frequency to deliver very valuable capacity, energy, and ancillary services. A single annual test became a thing of the past. Customers are now being called on to curtail load or transfer demand to behind-the-meter assets many times during the year. Under-performing “phantom megawatts” that flew under the radar in the early days of demand response can no longer meet market requirements.

Demand response is needed more than ever to deliver on-peak capacity, to help tamp down energy prices during grid constraints, and to help balance the grid 24/7/365 in real-time through frequently dispatched operating reserves programs (e.g. PJM Sync Reserves). As a result of more stringent program requirements, the value of demand response is also on the rise. For the strongest-performing demand response resources, capable of adapting to increased demand response requirements, this means more cash for curtailment, often more than double what was available in the past.

Demand response has come of age. If your business is ready to truly offer up your operational flexibility to the grid (and make cash in the process), email us or chat with us by clicking below.

A Response to COVID-19.

Posted on March 13, 2020 by greggdixon@voltus.co

All,

Dealing with the reality of a global pandemic is new for all of us. We don’t know the full business impact of COVID-19, but we do know it’s negative, certainly in the short term and possibly the long-term.

A business downturn results in two things:

Organizations look to save cash.
Organizations have more operational flexibility as manufacturing lines aren’t running at full capacity, offices aren’t fully staffed as people stick closer to home, hotels aren’t filling up, etc.

At Voltus, we are in a unique position to help you prepare for this downturn. Demand response programs turn this unforeseen operational flexibility into cash for your business.

We make it incredibly simple to enroll and get started in these programs with a simple one-page agreement. There are no out of pocket costs. There are no risks. Our technology is installed by your own electricians, keeping your team working. The entire process is remote.

Demand response is a small but important part of the solution to the challenges ahead of us. Join us in keeping our economy strong by turning COVID-19 on its head.

Stay healthy and safe,

Gregg Dixon
Voltus, Inc.
CEO

Week #3 – Incremental Auction Sell-Off (Don’t Get Caught Holding an Empty Bag of Cash)

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

Using a bit of provocation, last month we declared that PJM Demand Response is Dead! The caveat here is that PJM Demand Response (as you’ve known it) is Dead, with changes to the Emergency Load Response Program (ELRP) that make it much more difficult for customers to perform and, ultimately, earn cash (e.g., a 30 minute response with 365/24/7 availability doesn’t work for most).

Our webinar, outlining these changes, and highlighting our out-of-market PeakSaver Program, occurred a few weeks before the close of PJM’s 3rd incremental auction (IA). These incremental auctions give capacity providers, who made commitments to provide capacity three years ago, the opportunity to sell their positions back to the market. Given the changes to ELRP, we had a company-wide hypothesis: curtailment service providers (CSPs) will offer thousands of megawatts back to the market during the 3rd IA, ultimately mitigating their risk of portfolio underperformance under stringent new “capacity performance” program requirements.

There is an important phrase in that last sentence though – mitigating their risk. If a demand response provider unloads their position, what happens to the customer who is expecting to get paid for ELRP program participation in 2020? When the CSP liquidates their position in an IA, the CSP is paid, but the customer’s obligation to perform, and their earning potential, is gone.

Last week, the results were posted and our theory held true: 4,500 MWs of generation capacity, a large portion of which represents demand response, was sold back to the market, dumping many CSPs’ commitments to deliver for the first full “capacity performance” year (starting 6/1/2020). This capacity offloading is a clear sign that the new capacity performance rules prove too risky and costly for many in-market demand response MWs. Commercial and industrial customers who were expecting to generate revenue for the upcoming power year may find that their position was sold out. The CSP will pocket 100% of the profit, leaving the customer with nothing.

What now? Given these results, CSPs are scrambling to figure out exactly how to maximize the profitability of their portfolio and will only retain the best performing customers into the new power year. Don’t get caught holding the bag. All customers should contact their CSP and get a written confirmation of their position for the upcoming summer.

Most importantly, sign up for out-of-market demand response. Voltus’s PeakSaver program can be stacked with in-market programs and provide a clear path to cash this summer. Because the program is market independent, you can enroll at any time, doubling your demand response dollars for the coming year. PeakSaver provides a no cost, no risk approach to demand response that proves far more reliable than many in-market programs.

The only bag you should be holding is the one filled with money. Contact us at info@voltus.co or chat with us by clicking on the icon on the bottom right of your screen to get yours.

This post is part of multi-week series dedicated to “Getting the Most Cheese from Demand Response.” Check out Week 1 on Eliminating Capacity Charges and Week 2 on In-Market versus Out-of-Market Demand Response.

Week #2 – Getting the Most Cheese from Demand Response: Unlocking the Value of In-Market and Out-of-Market DR Programs

Posted on March 4, 2020 by greggdixon@voltus.co

Last week we kicked off our multi-week Vlog series dedicated to unmasking some of the little known tips and tricks of the demand response market.

We started by explaining how easy it is to eliminate capacity charges through Voltus’s Peak Saver program. Peak Saver is an out-of-market, peak shaving program that leverages Voltus’s real-time, cloud-based technology platform. Peak Saver has the potential to more than double your demand response dollars when combined with traditional in-market programs. Who doesn’t like more cash?

But wait … in-market? Out-of-market? What is the difference between these approaches to turning operational flexibility into cash? Read on to learn more.

#2 – In-Market vs. Out-of-market Demand Response

When most people think demand response (DR), they think FERC-regulated programs that only exist in the wholesale energy markets of the US and Canada. ISO-NE, NYISO, PJM, MISO, ERCOT, SPP, and CAISO, as well as IESO and AESO in Canada, have demand response programs that focus on procuring reliable generation capacity, as well energy and ancillary services. Each market has its own variations, but all “in-market” demand response programs are subject to strict market-specific rules and a decent dose of regulatory risk. These programs are constantly evolving, but offer significant cash payments to market participants who commit their negawatts to meet program criteria.

Voltus has created “out-of-market” Peak Saver programs, bringing cash savings opportunities to every region in the US and Canada. Peak Saver leverages VoltApp, our real-time energy technology platform, to predict peak hours, eliminate capacity charges, and lower electric bills by up to 30%. Because there are no strictly defined market rules, there is also no barrier to entry for these programs. Commercial, industrial, and institutional customers can stack in-market and out-of-market demand response programs increasing their net earnings.

To demonstrate the relative value of in-market and out-of-market DR, let’s break it down by looking at the the value of 1 MW of curtailment in AEP Ohio. In the chart below, “in-market” opportunities – Emergency Load Response Program (ELRP), Synchronized Reserves Program (SRP), and the Gross-up (more on that in coming weeks) – represented in green, account for only 28% of the potential value of that MW of curtailment. Voltus’s “out-of-market” PJM program, represented in blue, allows consumers to not only reduce their generation capacity charges (the other side of the coin of in-market demand response revenue) but also transmission capacity charges. In this example, the out-of-market demand response opportunities account for 72% of the value, more than doubling this company’s net demand response dollars.

There are some important trade-offs to consider when optimizing the cash earned from these approaches. First, an energy consumer can benefit from implementing both of these approaches, but typically for only one season. In-market programs limit a customer’s ability to enroll by their peak load contribution value. The value of your peak load contribution is reduced when you participate in out-of-market peak shaving programs, eroding your ability to benefit from the in-market program.

Operationally speaking, in-market demand response programs have a different operational profile than out-of-market programs, summarized in the table below comparing PJM’s ELRP program with Peak Saver. In-market programs historically require fewer hours of annual response. However, with substantially more challenging performance requirements that are fully implemented in 2020, PJM’s ELRP program requires a 24/7/365 response requirement with advance notice of 30 minutes and an unlimited number of potential response hours. Of course, it’s very difficult to predict just how much PJM’s ELRP program will be called under new program requirements. On the other hand, out-of-market demand response in PJM likely requires more actual response hours each year, but the predictability of program requirements is clearer. With about 30 hours of highly predictable curtailment coupled with very clear and easy operational requirements, capturing out-of-market demand response value is often a better approach than in-market demand response alone.

There are additional nuances to comparing the two approaches (out-of-market vs. in-market) and stacking multiple demand response value streams (up to seven distinct programs in Pennsylvania, for instance) requires even deeper consideration. We can help you navigate the host of options. Chat with us below or email us at info@voltus.co

#3 – Incremental Auction Sell-Off

How to avoid absorbing the in-market risk from your demand response service provider … more to come on Thursday, 3/12.

Week #1 – Getting the Most Cheese from Demand Response: Eliminating Capacity Charges

Posted on February 26, 2020 by greggdixon@voltus.co

A few weeks back we dropped somewhat of a bombshell by declaring that Demand Response in PJM, as You Know It, Is Dead. Of course, this was meant to be a bit provocative with the goal of drawing attention to a better way of capturing the value of demand response in the rapidly evolving and controversial PJM market. During our webinar we explained why demand response in PJM is, in fact, more valuable than ever for commercial and industrial loads that leverage Voltus’s out-of-market DR program – Peak Saver – in addition to traditional in-market programs. Our webinar stirred dozens of questions, many of which we didn’t have time to cover in full detail during the webinar.

This multi-week Vlog series is dedicated to answering those questions with a bit more detail, while extending many of the concepts covered in the webinar into other markets. The goal here, as always, is to help customers turn their operational flexibility into the most cash possible wherever they have operations.

#1 – Eliminating Capacity Charges

Did you know that about 30% of your annual electricity bill comes from the electricity you use during one to five peak hours of the year? Generation and transmission demand or capacity charges (dubbed – TransCap and GenCap) are not only on the rise, but are accounting for a larger portion of large energy consumers’ electric bills over time, which means there’s a growing opportunity to reduce expense.

If you could reduce or eliminate your load during those same peak hours, you can eliminate or reduce a significant portion of your annual electric bill. Put differently, would you be willing to reduce electricity demand for 0.5% of the hours of the year to potentially reduce your annual energy bill by 30%? If the answer is, “Yes!” then we can show you how.

Voltus’s Peak Saver technology platform (VoltApp) helps to eliminate capacity charges by predicting peak load hours, instructing customers to curtail during those hours, measuring your load reduction in real-time, and verifying the savings on your electricity bill to ensure that the savings are captured. We manage this program no differently than a typical demand response program that you may have part.

Peak shaving is often operationally better aligned with a customer’s ability to curtail load or use behind-the-meter assets like onsite generation. Combining traditional in-market demand response programs with our out-of-market Peak Saver program has been proven to more than double the dollars a customer gets from demand response.

Interested in learning more? Chat with us below or email us at info@voltus.co

#2 – In-Market vs. Out-of-Market Demand Response

We’ll delve deeper into these terms and provide clarity on what programs exist in different geographic regions . . . stay tuned for the details on Thursday, 3/5!

Webinar: PJM Demand Response (as you know it) is Dead. Now what?

Posted on February 19, 2020 by greggdixon@voltus.co

Demand Response in PJM, as you’ve known it, is dead.

Now that PJM requires DR resources to respond in 30 minutes on a 24/7/365 basis, customers are abandoning the program. So, where are these flexible loads going?

Join energy experts Dana Guernsey and Todd Krause, as well as a special guest message from Jon Wellinghoff, former FERC Chairman, in this lively replay of our popular webinar. Ready to double your demand response dollars in 2020 and beyond? Join us!