Last month, the central and southern United States experienced an extreme weather event that was unlike anything seen in decades.
In Texas, intense subzero temperatures, sleet, ice, and snow blanketed the entire state, leading to unprecedented surges in demand as customers across the state cranked their thermostats. To preserve as much power as possible while protecting the grid, grid operators instituted rolling blackouts, leaving millions of customers without heat, electricity, or running water for 24 hours or longer.
In the weeks following the storm, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) statements revealed that Texas’s grid was less than five minutes away from total collapse, which would have plunged the state's 29 million residents into apocalyptic darkness for weeks. Consumer groups and residents also reported that blackouts were instituted with little to no warning, while others shared news of receiving outrageous energy bills as high as $17,000.
While not unique, Texas foreshadows the challenges posed by surges in demand caused by extreme weather events — and the extreme deficiencies in aging grids. More importantly, it provides a timely case study on how wireless real-time energy management (WREM) solutions can benefit utilities, as well as their customers, by building real-time grid intelligence and customer engagement.
Making smarter energy decisions with real-time energy management
With the ability to gain insight beyond the meter, WREM empowers utility program managers with the tools to manage peak demand, optimize a growing number of distributed energy resources (DERs) and provide frictionless customer engagement. By using existing broadband networks for low-cost and extensive accessibility, WREM solutions immediately provide real-time access to revenue-grade meter data, delivering relevant insights that allow utilities to engage their customers to balance energy supply and demand.
Targeted demand management supports the grid
During periods of peak demand, such as hot summer days or extreme winter storms like the one that created the crisis in Texas, increased energy demand can exhaust the available supply and stress the grid. In such scenarios, utility program managers should easily be able to dispatch targeted demand response (DR) events to customers to intervene where it matters most to the grid. WREM disaggregation can target events at specific large-consumption devices or geographies, directing customers to take action that benefits grid stability and balances geographic and technological demands over time.
Personalized engagement to enhance customer satisfaction
User-friendly, personalized data drives customer engagement in the moments that matter. Leveraging WREM solutions to engage customers with personalized insights and steps to take simple but meaningful action enables utilities to educate customers about how their behavior affects their monthly utility bills. While utilities strive to provide safe, reliable, and affordable energy, customers want comfort, convenience, and control. WREM insights bring both together for shared savings and improved grid stability and reliability.
New opportunities for grid optimization
As technologies advance and the ability to generate renewable energy improves, the grid becomes more dynamic. While utilizing and distributing renewable energy presents challenges, the grid edge intelligence WREM delivers creates opportunities to reinvent the power grid in a much more flexible, efficient, and cost-effective manner. By using the data WREM solutions collect, utilities can support initiatives like conservation voltage reduction (CVR) at a low cost and help customers derive more value from their DERs, thereby enabling more productive grid interactions and more economical grid solutions.
By delivering the real-time grid intelligence that utilities crave, WREM solutions provide a low-cost, easy-to-deploy, and effective mechanism for forward-planning managers to achieve meaningful grid impact when and where it matters most.
Download Guidehouse’s latest white paper, commissioned by Copper Labs, to find out how WREM solutions can help utilities engage consumers in real-time demand management to reduce the cost to serve energy, maximize the use of variable renewables and stabilize the grid.
