Dive Brief:
- Enel North America’s FlexUp demand-response solutions can now be automated through Honeywell’s building automation systems, according to a news release issued last week.
- FlexUp provides businesses with financing for automation projects that can increase participation in demand response programs, according to Enel. Demand response programs issue incentives for businesses to lessen their electricity consumption during times of peak demand on the power grid.
- Honeywell’s partnership with Enel allows businesses to upgrade or install building or industrial controls with no upfront cost, Craig Henry, program manager at Honeywell Smart Energy, told Facilities Dive. Automation provides greater reliability and an increased ability to lower energy consumption during peak periods, benefiting both customers and the grid, he noted.
Dive Insight:
Utility and grid-sponsored demand response programs provide payments to large energy consumers that agree to reduce energy demand during stress periods, helping the grid to remain in balance and avoid blackouts, Enel says on its website.
"There is a growing need for energy capacity that can respond on short notice to ensure grid stability," Hamed Heyhat, president of Honeywell Smart Energy & Thermal Solutions, said in the press release.
This growing demand stems from an increased use of distributed energy resources, such as solar panels, energy storage systems and electric vehicle charging, which is creating more instability to the power grid, Henry said. To manage this instability, utilities require flexible resources that can quickly adjust to balance electricity supply and demand, he noted.
Buildings account for about 30% of global energy demand, but efforts to reduce energy consumption can cut that demand by 12%, according to a whitepaper released by the World Economic Forum and PwC in January.
The partnership aims to enable organizations, ranging from “commercial offices and retail stores to food manufacturing and farming facilities,” to automate facility operations, “with no out-of-pocket costs, significantly enhancing their demand response earnings potential,” Honeywell said in the release.
When facilities engage in demand response programs, they can generate revenue and reduce operating costs while reducing energy consumption, Enel says. But energy curtailment is traditionally manual, Henry said. When done by hand, facility personnel must coordinate hours or even days in advance to adjust consumption.
Automating demand response removes the need for input from personnel, meaning adjustments can be made in a matter of minutes, Henry added.
Large companies can automate demand response with their own tools. For instance, Google is using a carbon-intelligent computing platform to align its data centers’ energy usage with periods when clean energy is more readily available. Since programs like FlexUp remove upfront costs, they can increase the return on investment of an automation project, Henry said.
“Our modern power grids need end users who are willing and able to adjust their electricity usage in real time, reducing costs and earning revenue in the process," Molly Jerrard, head of demand response at Enel North America, said in a statement.
