The energy intelligence software company EnerNOC has announced that its demand response system DemandSMART, has provided essential grid relief during the recent US heatwave. The company has despatched around 850MW of capacity, equivalent to around eight fossil-fuel burning power plants, to hundreds of commercial customers across the western United States including institutional, industrial and agricultural clients in California, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico. The system has helped to restore system balance in the region as well as stabilising energy prices.
"Because buildings retain heat, it takes more energy on day three, four and five of a heat wave to cool the same amount of space" explained Tim Healy, Chairman and CEO of EnerNOC. "This heat wave has been unrelenting in many areas, taxing the grid and creating an increased need for power. By shedding flexible load strategically across thousands of sites, we helped to ensure that stable, reliable power was delivered to millions of people affected by this heat wave. And with the addition of the enhanced tools and technology in our new Network Operations Centre to facilitate these dispatches, we were able to ensure seamless execution with even greater confidence."
Demand response is now integrated into many utilities energy portfolios in order to manage heat waves without utilising more expensive peaking power plants. Given that utilities are increasingly planning to address system peaks that are most frequently set during the summer they are also increasingly turning to demand response system as a valuable tool.
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