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Voltus Announces Victory for Customers as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Unleashes the Full Value of Distributed Energy Resources in Every Market

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Voltus, Inc., the world’s leading Distributed Energy Resources (DER) technology platform, announces a historic win in its battle to ensure the equal treatment of all DERs in wholesale power markets. Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) responded to Voltus’s October filing by taking steps to unify the treatment of all DERs under Order 2222, ensuring that demand response (DR) can fully participate in wholesale markets as part of DER aggregations without discriminatory state and local barriers.

“FERC’s clarification provides an immediate opportunity for demand response to deliver reliability, economic, and sustainability benefits to every state that is part of a wholesale power market,” said Voltus Chief Regulatory Officer and former FERC Chairman, Jon Wellinghoff. “DER aggregators like Voltus will be able to help customers and DER partners access states that previously restricted demand response from coming to market.”

In his opening statements at today’s meeting, FERC Commissioner Neil Chatterjee lauded the Commission’s decision to prevent the state opt-out provision in Order 719 from “serving as a barrier to demand response resources participating in mixed aggregations.” Chatterjee also stated, “Our responsibility is to make sure our federal wholesale markets deliver reliable low-cost energy services to consumers and the way to get there is to make sure emerging technologies can enter the market, period.”

Voltus celebrates the significance of this step for energy consumers nationwide. “We’re very grateful that FERC removed this barrier to full DR market participation so quickly,” says Gregg Dixon, Voltus Co-founder and CEO. “The benefits of this decision will result in significantly lower wholesale electricity prices, a more reliable grid, and a better environment for all.”

About Voltus, Inc.

Voltus aims to be the Distributed Energy Platform that fulfills the promise of the energy transition. Voltus represents the “potential of us” to better manage energy through simple, cost and risk-free programs for Distributed Energy Resources. To learn more, visit www.voltus.co.

Voltus Media Relations
Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

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A V2G Tesla Model S Would Have Paid for Itself in ERCOT Last Week

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Ariele Ladabaum

Authors: Gregg Dixon, Jon Wellinghoff, Dana Guernsey

The three central US power grids, ERCOT, SPP, and MISO, which represent 270,000 MWs of electricity demand (34% of total US demand), faced catastrophic power outages last week. While the pundits and critics point fingers and place blame, we believe this energy crisis could have been significantly alleviated in a sustainable way that ensured reliable power while costing consumers less.

The answer lies in the power, no pun intended, of distributed energy resources (DERs) that largely lie fallow all around us, or more accurately, in the WiFi home thermostat, the remotely controllable on-site generator at the grocery store, the EV in the garage, the rooftop solar panels, the building management system at the mall, the cogeneration system at the food processing plant, and the countless other Internet-connected devices that consume, produce, or store electricity in our modern, digital economy. We now need the courage of lawmakers and regulators across the political spectrum to recognize the potential of these resources, and to acknowledge that no one answer, no one technology, will solve our energy problems, just the same as no one technology or resource type is to blame for them. The power of DERs is by very nature their diversity. Much like a well balanced financial portfolio, the electricity grid also becomes far more resilient and reliable when harnessing the power of decentralized and diverse resources. 

Taken together, DERs today have the potential to deliver 54,000 MWs of power to the grid in 30 minutes or less, often in seconds, across the ERCOT, MISO, and SPP grids. In the future, as more and more DERs are networked together and instantly controllable, we will see many multiples of this potential available to consumers and grid operators alike, representing the full potential of the “energy Internet of Things.” In the 20th century, we built our electric grid to ramp supply up and down in order to meet variable demand. In the 21st century, the energy Internet of Things will also allow us to adjust demand to meet supply just as effectively. The possibilities are endless and here today.

So, just what are these DERs and how do we take full advantage of them to help prevent catastrophe in our era of climate change while acting as the backstop and balancing resource that renewable energy needs to fulfill its promise and potential? Let’s take a look at a number of use cases, measure potential, and talk shop about how to tie it all together. Here are some jaw dropping examples:

  • Google Nest thermostats are WiFi-enabled controllers of heating and cooling loads, loads that represent nearly 10 percent of all electricity consumption. There’s nearly 27,000 MWs of this load in the central US alone. Our estimates show that about 10 percent of that is already controllable through Google Nests, but almost none of these devices are connected to wholesale power markets where they could offer capacity, energy, and ancillary services. That is about to change though. FERC recently ruled in Order 2222 to allow DERs to compete on a level playing field in US power markets. Companies like Voltus can bring these DERs to market in aggregations, turning these resources into one of the single largest virtual power plants in the US. This reimagined power plant is capable of not only turning load down but also ramping up quickly to provide such services as regulating reserves. The payback on a Nest thermostat during peak power prices in ERCOT last week would have been 28 hours even if the Nest was controlling just a single kW of electricity.
  • If that’s not impressive enough, then consider this: a Tesla Model S would have paid for itself in two days in the ERCOT ancillary services market last week, assuming you could export its capacity to the grid (known as V2G). Two days. The whole car. And not the base model. A nicely equipped Model S! You read that right. By the year 2030, the combined lithium ion battery capacity in EVs in the US will be more than double the combined power capacity of all traditional supply-side power plants in the US. All of the coal, gas, wind, hydro, nuclear, and solar . . . times two! Imagine a world where we could interconnect all of these EVs to deliver and benefit from wholesale power markets. This isn’t pie in the sky. In fact, Voltus can manage what’s known as V1G EV (simply curtailing battery charging) market participation today. When we get to V2G, kind of like what 5G is to telephony, the possibilities are staggering. What’s most amazing is that EV manufacturers will allow consumers to dial in their grid services preferences on their dashboard no differently than a consumer signs up to Google’s Rush Hour Rewards program right on their thermostat. We’re at the forefront of this, working with EV manufacturers to innovate the best solutions.
  • It’s been said that the “greenest kW is the one never built.” More than 13,000 MWs of electricity load is supported by an existing fleet of onsite generation at tens of thousands of commercial and industrial locations in ERCOT, SPP, and MISO, and hundreds of thousands more at homes that have backup power. Power Secure, Generac, Caterpillar, and a whole host of innovative companies are internetworking these systems to preemptively run to take load off of the grid, helping to keep the lights on for everyone, taking advantage of resources that already exist but aren’t yet fully tied into a broader network.
  • Perhaps the most interesting electricity loads we’ve seen in a generation are coming online . . . cryptomines. In the central US alone there are already plans for 10,000 MWs with 1,000 MWs already online. These loads are controllable in microseconds. In fact, we’ve integrated Voltus technology at cryptomines in MISO, SPP, ERCOT, and other wholesale markets. Watching a 100 MW load come offline in seconds, controllable at the microprocessor level, is a grid operator’s dream come true. 95% of cryptomining expense is electricity and, due to the technology in play, these loads are not only massive (the largest single loads ever seen in human history, topping 1,000 MWs in some locations) but hyper-responsive to grid signals, whether prices, automatic generator control (AGC), or calls for emergency capacity where the load needs to stay down for hours, or even days. Think about all of the benefits of Lithium Ion energy storage but with the ability to deliver for a much longer duration and at a small fraction of the cost.

The most affordable, most resilient, and the most sustainable model for computing is the distributed, networked model. This is why the mainframes and “dumb terminals” of the 1970s have given way to cloud computing today. The same promise holds true for the “original network:” the electric grid. Central power stations and “dumb loads” will be complemented by distributed energy resources converging with cloud computing to create an energy internet of things that will deliver one of our generation’s greatest, positive impacts. And, just as cloud computing has created incredibly equitable outcomes, this energy Internet of things will do the same.

About the Authors:

Gregg Dixon is the CEO of Voltus, Inc. Voltus is building the distributed energy platform that accelerates the energy transition, connecting every device that uses, produces, or stores electricity to the electricity grids that value them. With 20 years of experience in distributed energy resources, Gregg and his teams have brought more than 12,000 MWs of distributed energy resources to market around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon Wellinghoff is the CEO and founder of GridPolicy Consulting. As a former FERC Chairman, Jon brings more than 40 years of leadership experience in federal, state and local energy policy, regulation, and market development to help solve today’s most pressing electric grid challenges.

Dana Guernsey is the Vice President of Product and Energy Markets at Voltus, Inc. With nearly 15 years of experience developing and operating distributed energy resources in electricity markets around the world, Dana is among the world’s leading experts in distributed energy resource productization and electricity market development.

Voltus Media Relations

Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

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$445 Million per Hour

USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/02/16/texas-weather-power-outage-rolling-blackouts-leave-millions-dark/6764764002/

Posted on February 17, 2021 by Kelly Yazdani

That’s the value of economic loss occurring in the ERCOT region of Texas right now, based on the load sector weighted average of the Value of Lost Load (VOLL), the result of a study commissioned to London Economics by ERCOT in 2013. The weighted average VOLL is $22,243 per megawatt hour (MWh) in ERCOT. Over the past three days about 20,000 MWs of electricity hasn’t been delivered per hour that otherwise would be delivered if not for the effects of the polar vortex. You can do the math on the rolling economic impact.

$180 million per hour is the economic impact to power producers not operating to deliver that 20,000 MWs of power per hour if you apply the ERCOT locational marginal price (LMP) cap of $9,000/MWh. And for many of the 127 retail electricity providers (REPs) in ERCOT who sell a fixed price electricity product to consumers, and who don’t hedge their supply, they are likely facing bankruptcy.

For consumers who have been consuming electricity during the past few days, and who have been buying electricity at the LMP, their power bill for three days will likely exceed their entire annual budget for electricity spend. Griddy, in an act of transparency, proactively communicated this situation to their customers. When the dust settles, these central US power outages will likely prove to be the most costly power outages in human history, measured in dozens of lives lost and tens of billions of dollars, far exceeding the effects from the 2003 blackout that hit the Northeast US.

While the pundits and sideline snipers are eager to blame and point fingers, rest assured that ERCOT, or any wholesale power market operator (SPP and MISO currently) in a similar situation, is doing their level best to balance the needs of consumers, regulators, suppliers, and politicians, all of whom establish the electricity markets upon which our livelihoods depend more and more. Now is the time to offer solutions to help electricity market operators deal with the cataclysmic challenges of climate change, the effects of which will accelerate and produce more frequent, similar situations. We can no longer “wait and see.”

The good news is that power market operators have an incredibly powerful tool at their disposal to ensure power quality, resilience, and affordability right now . . . distributed energy resources. 200,000 MWs of these resources lie in wait in the US alone. Much like the mainframes and “dumb terminals” of the 1970s, our current power grid is characterized largely by central power stations and “dumb loads.” The internet now offers a single standard upon which every digital device can choose to connect, creating a platform for massive innovation and unlocking the value of networks. Voltus dreams of a single electricity transmission superhighway, a single wholesale power market, and an interconnected system of distributed energy technologies operating in conjunction with central power stations, grid operators, and local utilities who have the systems they need to ensure that our modern, digital economy has uninterrupted, affordable, clean, and resilient power.

Today, our distributed energy resources are operating at full tilt to help ERCOT, SPP, and MISO. Our Texas teammates are on the front lines, bringing value to our customers, and operating the virtual power plants that these market operators are making use of right now. Our team and technology is built to unleash the massive benefits of distributed energy resources in every market in the world.

Let’s go!!!

Gregg Dixon
CEO & Co-founder
greggdixon@voltus.co


Image Credit: USA Today, https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2021/02/16/texas-weather-power-outage-rolling-blackouts-leave-millions-dark/6764764002/

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Gregg Dixon featured on THE TORCH with Chris Wedding

Posted on November 18, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -Teddy Roosevelt

Gregg Dixon sat down with Chris Wedding of ENTREPRENEURS for IMPACT to talk DERs, COVID, hiring, and the personal habits that contribute toward success. Read the entire interview here.

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Voltus Raises $25M To Grow Leadership Position In Distributed Energy Resources In Financing Round Led By NGP Energy Technology Partners III

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Kelly Yazdani

SAN FRANCISCO, October 29, 2020 – Voltus, Inc., the leading distributed energy resources (DER) platform, today announced it has raised $25 million in a Series B financing. The round was led by NGP Energy Technology Partners III (“NGP ETP III”) and included existing investors Prelude Ventures and Ajax Strategies.

The funding will be used to create more jobs, develop additional products, and enter new markets, allowing Voltus to increase its leadership position delivering cash to commercial and industrial customers via innovative DER solutions.

Since its founding in 2016, Voltus has increased the market potential for DERs, entering every North American market and becoming the first aggregator of retail customers in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), in addition to being the first to offer capacity, ancillary services, and energy DER products in these same markets. In total, Voltus has secured over 2,000 megawatts of DERs, making it the fastest-growing provider of such services in industry history.

The Series B financing comes on the heels of FERC Order 2222, which ensures the equal treatment of DERs in wholesale markets in the United States, doubling Voltus’s market opportunity.

“A 15-year plus leader in energy technology investing, NGP ETP III is focused on committing capital to compelling companies focused on energy transition and is very pleased to be partnering with Voltus and to lead the Series B financing. Voltus has a leading DER technology platform, an extensive customer network in key target markets, a world-class team, and a proven track record,” said NGP ETP III CEO Philip Deutch.

Reflecting on the future impact of the Voltus mission, Voltus CEO Gregg Dixon said: “I’m deeply proud of our team’s accomplishments, but the success Voltus has experienced is just the tip of the iceberg. Our technology platform unlocks the potential of DERs for everyone, the benefits of which amount to $200 billion per year globally and a much more resilient and sustainable grid. DERs are the skeleton key to the energy transition, delivering the backstop and balancing resource for intermittent renewables.”

Tim Woodward, Managing Director of Prelude Ventures and Voltus Board Member, describes the impact of this raise: “The Voltus platform connects every type of DER, from energy storage to demand response to distributed generation, in every market . . . today. This round of financing will dramatically accelerate Voltus’s mission.” Veery Maxwell, Partner at Ajax Strategies and fellow Board Member also expresses her support, “This additional capital will take Voltus’s record-breaking growth to the next level. I look forward to working hand in hand with the Voltus team to level the regulatory playing field and achieve their ambitious goals.”

About Voltus, Inc.

Voltus represents the “potential of us” to better manage energy through simple, cost and risk-free distributed energy resources programs. Our commercial and industrial customers generate cash by allowing us to maximize the value of their operational flexibility in energy markets. 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. To learn more, visit www.voltus.co.

About NGP Energy Technology Partners III

One of the most experienced energy technology investors in the United States, NGP Energy Technology Partners III (“NGP ETP III”) invests in innovative technology companies seeking to transform global energy markets. NGP ETP III targets growth capital investments in companies with products, services or technologies serving the renewable energy, power, energy storage, energy efficiency, environmental, and transportation sectors. For additional information, please visit www.ngpetp3.com.

NGP ETP III is affiliated with NGP Energy Capital Management (“NGP”). Founded in 1988, NGP is a premier investment franchise in the energy industry, with over $20 billion in cumulative equity commitments organized to make strategic investments in the energy and natural resources sectors. NGP’s 32-year history gives it unique insight into the drivers of value creation in all facets of the energy industry. For more information visit www.ngpenergycapital.com.

Voltus Media Relations

Kelly Yazdani
Director of Marketing
703-340-9353
kyazdani@voltus.co

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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.

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New Year’s Resolution – Double Your DR $s with Voltus – Guaranteed!

Posted on December 31, 2019 by greggdixon@voltus.co

Our experts want to help you with a single new year’s resolution: double your dollars in demand response in 2020 with these five tips:

  1. Jon Wellinghoff, former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and “Father of Demand Response”: “In New York City, Texas, and all of PJM, you’ll want to ‘stack’ multiple demand response programs. If you’re only in one program, you’re missing out on many new programs. I’m aware of up to six programs being stacked at a single facility in Pennsylvania!”

  2. Ed Sayers, Vice President of Energy at Simon Property Group: “Optimize your enrolled kW. DR works off of a simple formula: kW x $’s = earnings. Squeeze every kW you can by reevaluating your operational flexibility and enrollment levels. As you invest in energy controls or new equipment you’ll often find that you can enable more kW, with quicker response times. That’s more cash.”

  3. Alex Laskey, founder and former President of Opower: “For American businesses, transmission capacity charges are increasing significantly. Too few companies manage these, but doing so will help you double the value you’ll get from curtailing loads. For Canadian businesses, spend a little money to reduce your Global Adjustment charges. Those fees are simply too large to manage without expert advice.”

  4. Dennis Quinn, General Manager of CashGen at Voltus: “Get back your backup generator. The opportunity to use your generator in demand response programs has returned. These resources are the highest quality power for your facility and a high quality type of demand response.”

  5. Phil Giudice, former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and CEO of Ambri: “Demand response continues to grow, so understand every program available to your facility. For example, the Southwest Power Pool now offers demand response. Illinois customers have access to a lucrative, quick response demand response program. And customers in Ohio have more demand response choice than ever before.”

Are you resolved to double your dollars in demand response in 2020? Email us for a detailed review of your portfolio (info@voltus.co – not .com) and we’ll show you all the options to guarantee you hit that New Year’s resolution.

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Jon Wellinghoff’s New Year’s Resolution – Double Your DR $s

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Voltus

Our experts want to help you with a single new year’s resolution: double your dollars in demand response in 2019 with these five tips:

  1. Jon Wellinghoff, former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and “Father of Demand Response”: “You’ll want to “stack” multiple demand response programs. If you’re only in one program, you’re missing out on many new programs. I’m aware of up to six programs being stacked at a single facility.”

  2. Ed Sayers, Vice President of Energy at Simon Property Group: “Optimize your enrolled kW. DR works off of a simple formula: kW x $’s = earnings. Squeeze every kW you can by reevaluating your operational flexibility and enrollment levels. As you invest in energy controls or new equipment you’ll often find that you can enable more kW, with quicker response times. That’s more cash.”

  3. Alex Laskey, founder and former President of Opower: “Take advantage of “out-of-market” demand response. You can double the value you get from curtailing loads. In nearly every North American power market, businesses incur peak demand charges. Moreover, transmission capacity charges are often greater than generation capacity expenses. You’ll want to avoid these.”

  4. Dana Guernsey, Vice President of Product and Energy Markets at Voltus: “Get back your backup generator. The opportunity to use your generator in demand response programs has returned. These resources are the highest quality power for your facility and a high quality type of demand response.”

  5. Phil Giudice, former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and CEO of Ambri: “Negotiate contract terms carefully. Look beyond simple top line revenue sharing percentages. Details matter and vary by program, market and geography. Some customers are surprised when it comes to unfamiliar terms such as “gross up.” You can increase your earnings 10% to 30% per year by making sure you get a piece of all of the profitable opportunities available.”

Are you resolved to double your dollars in demand response in 2019? Email us for a detailed review of your portfolio (info@voltus.co – not .com) and we’ll show you all the options to guarantee you hit that New Year’s resolution.

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