Jim Pierobon is Founder and principal writer of The Energy Fix. He is a policy, marketing and social media strategist who has reported on, testified and consulted about smarter grids, cyber-security as it affects the power grid, fossil fuel shortages, price spikes, energy efficiency and the rise and fall -- and the rise again of nuclear and renewable energy sources.Virtual generation and demand response: how Constellation Energy finds energy where there wasn’t any
As operators for regional power grids such as PJM Interconnection begin to roll out more robust demand-response programs, the private sector is responding with software products that can save energy for large commercial and industrial consumers and help utilities avoid brownouts and perhaps even blackouts. One of the emerging leaders in this space — Constellation [...]
The demand response holy grail: are your commercial facility managers ‘PROsumers’?
To hear some industry pros explain it, only about 5% of all commercial buildings in the U.S. have achieved, or are about to achieve, what Siemens considers to be the “holy grail” of energy demand response management. These are facilities owned by companies that are not only holistically integrating sustainability into their operations and culture [...]
Matching smart grid apps to customer lifestyles
Among the lessons emerging from various utility pilot programs around the country where homeowners respond to dynamic pricing and demand reduction incentives is this pre-requisite: to change behavior utilities need to truly e-n-g-a-g-e their customers. And the most effective way to accomplish that is to be sure the utility has a large stockpile of customer [...]
LEED-raters begin pilot test of buildings able to respond to peak power demands
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is testing a new credit for its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system that earns points for buildings that have installed automated demand response tools. Buildings satisfy the credit by demonstrating their ability to shift energy consumption by at least 10 percent of peak load demand. [...]
Demand response and cleaner energy outbidding some coal-fired generation in PJM
Almost like a tree falling in the forest, the recent auction for wholesale power supplies from utilities and competitive generators produced a relatively quiet but telling shift in the PJM power grid which stretches from the Mid-Atlantic states into parts of the Midwest: Several aging coal-fired power plants were outbid by cleaner sources, including demand-response [...]