Silver Spring Networks, Inc. has announced enhancements to its demand response portfolio including an open, smart grid-enabled mobile thermostat app, as well as an expanded version of Silver Spring Demand Optimizer Application. Silver Spring customers such as Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. (BGE), Hawaiian Electric Co., Inc., Modesto Irrigation District (MID), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Pepco Holdings (PHI), Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), and others have leveraged Silver Spring‘s advanced metering technology to empower over 1 million customers to participate in DR programs designed to reduce peak consumption, such as dynamic pricing. Silver Spring has delivered more than 18.5 million DR-ready, ZigBee-enabled endpoints globally, and Silver Spring’s broad partner ecosystem has also enabled new solutions that will help reduce utility peak load and increase customer participation in DR programs.
“We launched a residential Peak Time Rebate program, called the BGE Smart Energy Rewards® program, to empower our customers and allow them to benefit from smart meters directly,” said Ruth Kiselewich, Director, Demand Side Management Programs, BGE. “Silver Spring’s smart grid network is instrumental to the program which is helping us keep our customers’ energy costs down during summer peak hours.”
Silver Spring’s expanded DR portfolio aims to help utilities transform their relationships with customers by helping them reduce bills and actively manage energy consumption, regardless of their location, and even where they don't have access to residential broadband. Silver Spring introduced the CustomerIQ Thermostat App, which includes both Web interfaces and a mobile app that gives utility customers smart thermostat status and remote control capabilities. The app leverages the connectivity and reliability of Silver Spring’s IPv6 standards-based network, combined with smart thermostat technology from Carrier and Energate, and can work with any ZigBee Smart Energy Protocol device. The app is available for iOS and Android devices and a web version is also available for CustomerIQ web users.
Silver Spring also unveiled enhancements to its Demand Optimizer Demand Response Management System (DRMS) Application that delivers precision forecasts, near real-time Measurement & Verification, DR portfolio optimization and DR program management. The new Silver Spring Demand Optimizer 1.1 introduces enhanced big-data analytics along with support for additional protocols and devices, allowing for fully automated two-way demand response over the smart grid or the Internet.
The updated Demand Optimizer 1.1 will provide utilities with several key benefits, including:
- Additional device choice for fully automated DR, by offering support for Direct-to-Grid™ Communications devices from Eaton’s Cooper Power Systems and OpenADR 2.0b compliant devices.
- The ability to preview a DR event and forecasted load reductions in detail before dispatching to customer end devices. This reduces dispatch errors and enables better targeting of relevant participant populations for maximum load shed.
- Saving a DR event to a template library for future use, modification, and dispatch. This allows for one-click dispatch during time-sensitive situations.
