Uplight, a clean energy technology company that enables utilities and their customers to conserve, manage, deploy, and monetize energy capacity, today announced its partnership with San José Clean Energy to expand the utility’s demand response (DR) program. Uplight will enable San José Clean Energy to enroll a total of 25 megawatts (MW) of dispatchable capacity by 2028, and 5 MW by the end of summer 2025. With this program, San José Clean Energy aims to help all customer segments, from residential to commercial & industrial (C&I), save money on their energy costs while also empowering them to take a more active role in alleviating strain on the grid.

The first phase of the program, live today, includes a variety of flexibility management strategies designed to reach a wide range of customers through a combination of residential behavioral demand response (BDR) and DR, as well as C&I DR. This diverse program design strategy, combined with Uplight’s market-leading technology and solutions which incorporate both behavioral motivation and direct device control, enable San José Clean Energy to leverage customer distributed energy resources (DERs) as part of a virtual power plant (VPP). The utility can call events that incentivize customers to reduce or shift their energy during times of peak demand, cost-effectively harness grid-connected devices to meet growing peak demand, alleviate strain on the grid, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also delivering high customer satisfaction. 

By the end of 2025, customers will be able to enroll a variety of grid-connected devices in the program, including smart thermostats, home batteries, electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and water heaters. The two companies are also collaborating to expand the traditional DR format to include daily load management with EVs and home batteries, including an innovative approach to encourage customers to charge their EVs during the midday hours, when solar energy is abundant. In addition to including a wide-ranging set of DERs, the program leverages innovative incentive structures to maximize load reduction per participating customer. For example, the utility’s BDR program is live in three languages, English, Spanish, and Chinese, and will expand to Vietnamese in the coming months. Additionally, the utility will provide quarterly bill credits for performance, meaning participants will have rewards for energy saving earnings directly applied as bill savings. 

“With this program, San José Clean Energy is demonstrating its commitment to bringing customers affordable and reliable energy, while also prioritizing sustainability, grid reliability, and decarbonization,” said Luis D’Acosta, CEO of Uplight. “We’re committed to enabling utilities like San José Clean Energy to offer their customers an intuitive process for enrolling and participating in flexibility management programs, and making it as easy as possible to experience financial benefits while also contributing to the energy transition.”

San José Clean Energy customers interested in enrolling in this program should visit sanjosecleanenergy.org/peak-rewards. To learn more about how Uplight’s flexibility management solutions drive energy-efficient and cost-effective programs like this one, visit uplight.com/vpp.