ORIGINAL REPORTING: Automated Customer Grid Services Coming In California

Energy Agency May Turn Automation of Grid-Connected Devices into Reality

Herman Trabish, January 11, 2022 (California Current)

Editor’s note: Electricity customers will soon have automated opportunities to provide services to the power system as part of the ongoing energy transition.

The California Energy Commission took the key first step toward a customer-led power sector that would help balance the grid during times of stress with the launch of its Load Management Standards rulemaking in late December. The proposed standards begin the process of capturing demand flexibility from customers’ distributed energy resources—from electric vehicles to water heaters—through automated responses to real-time price signals, Commissioner Andrew McAllister told Current.

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These long-overdue load management standards will help build a cloud-based “platform” in which utilities upload “a publicly accessible statewide rate database” that can be used by large and small energy users, he said. With advanced meters, communications, and automation technologies, customers and third-party aggregators gain the ability to take advantage of rates to optimize electricity usage and minimize economic and environmental impacts, according to the final CEC Staff Report on the rulemaking… click here for more

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