pwr_august-2024 - 19

DISTRIBUTED ENERGY AWARD
thermostat manufacturers to slightly
increase setpoints, reducing home cooling
loads. These minor adjustments by
APS customers can significantly lower
system load on the hottest days. But it
also boasts a capability to shed more
than 138 MW of energy, adding to its reliability
and energy avoidance benefits.
In 2021 and 2022, the company
launched a set of programs to help business
customers reach their clean energy
goals. The " Peak Solutions " program is
geared toward commercial and industrial
(C&I) customers. The program pays participants
for reducing electric energy during
times of high usage on the APS grid.
The program is " a low-to-no-risk, high-reward
opportunity " based on the amount
of energy participants can curtail.
Yet another key program is APS's
" Residential Battery Pilot " program,
through which the utility partners with
residential customers to learn more
about the capabilities of home battery
storage units. Finally, the VPP comprises
" Energy Savings Space, " a behavioral
demand response program.
The VPP has grown steadily since its
launch, driven by innovative approaches
by APS's Customer to Grid Solutions
team, Carnes said. " When I moved into
this department in 2019, we were at
maybe 20 MW worth. Last summer, we
were able to achieve 190 MW across all
our programs, " she noted. " I really do
attribute that to thinking about the customer
experience, " she added.
In the fall of 2020, for example, the
team launched " APS Marketplace, " an
online platform where customers can
buy " qualifying " smart home technology
devices. " It was a real game-changer "
in driving major enrollment growth. The
platform instantly removed barriers for
customers, allowing them to easily access
and enroll in demand response programs,
she said. " It's kind of a seamless,
frictionless experience for our customers.
You don't have to mail us your receipt
anymore. You don't have to wait for
the incentives or rebates to be applied. It
all gets applied at the point of sale, making
those technologies more affordable
and more attainable for our customers. "
APS's focus on improving customer
engagement and experience has been a
central aspect of building its VPP, Carnes
added. APS is continuously evolving its
marketing strategies to recruit more
participants and make potential participants
aware of program benefits-
including that they ultimately retain
control over their devices. " We leverAugust
2024 | POWER
age various marketing tactics and we're
constantly gauging the effectiveness of
those tactics and kind of revamping and
evolving those over time, " she said.
A Unique Dispatch Approach
But at the same time, APS has also
been working to maximize the effectiveness
of its VPP. The VPP is controlled efficiently
by a single resource operating
platform developed by Energy Hub. A
single point of reference limits human
performance errors, represents affordability
for customers, and simplifies
dispatch during events of high demand,
Carnes said.
However, " We've always kind of tried
to play around with different dispatch
strategies to kind of test what happens
with performance, what the degradation
looks like, " she noted. Last summer, for
the first time, the utility demonstrated
a " staggered dispatch, " which Carnes
said may be increasingly important as
the utility continues to grow the VPP.
" We like to say we're playing Tetris
with the devices-it helps us stretch
their contribution out over the on-peak
period because our retail on-peak actually
ends before the system peak ends, "
she explained. " So, having the ability to
stretch that out helps smooth the snapback
that naturally occurs at the end of
the pay period. "
Thinking about how to most efficiently
dispatch the assets flexibly will
allow APS to grow the portfolio beyond
thermostats, for example, to include a
whole-home distributed energy system
or an actively managed electric vehicle
charging program, Carnes noted. Trying
those strategies out in more measurable
ways before those technologies begin to
make a real impact on the grid is part of
the utility's service to its customers, she
suggested. " It's to make sure that we're
developing deep and trustful relationships
with our customers. "
When APS developed its Cool Rewards
program, for example, " it was
important for us to make sure that
customers understand that we view
this as an incredibly important part of
maintaining reliability and affordability
for our customers every summer. But
at the end of the day, they retain control, "
said Carnes. However, not all APS
programs have been successful. " We
tried a water heater program, but we
couldn't keep them connected, so we
shut it down, though we haven't given
up on that, " she said.
By incorporating customer feedback
www.powermag.com
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ Establishing a coordinated set of
programs that collectively function
as a virtual power plant (VPP) to
address demand growth while
giving customers a new role in
energy conservation through their
" grid-edge " devices.
✔ Saving 190 MW during a historic
heatwave that shifted the peak
day demonstrates a critical role in
maintaining grid reliability.
✔ APS aims to expand VPP capacity
to 1 GW by 2033, ensuring it
meets future energy demands and
supports ongoing electrification.
into the development process, APS
ensures the programs meet customer
needs and expectations, she explained.
" My team works very hard to make sure
that we're incorporating the voice of our
customers at every part of the development
process. We really are. We do not
subscribe to designing a program that
makes sense to a bunch of utility folks
and then pushing it out and hoping for
the best. We check in with customers. "
Preparing for Tomorrow's Loads
Looking ahead, Carnes expects the
VPP will play an even larger role as load
growth surges upward, driven by electrification
and data centers. Carnes and her
team are now shooting to exponentially
expand the VPP capacity from the current
190 MW over the next decade.
" Over the next 10 years, we're going
to be challenging all of my teams and
frankly our business partners across the
enterprise to help us really anchor the
infrastructure and technologies that we
need, " Carnes explained. The benefits of
the VPP extend beyond reliability, translating
into cost savings for all customers.
" Think of the startups that we saved on
conventional generation, the fuel that we
save. All of that translates into savings
that get passed to all of our customers,
whether they're a participant in the program
or not, and that is a good thing. That
is reliability and affordability in action, " she
emphasized. " Having flexibility through
customer-sited programs and partnerships,
we think, is just going to be such
an important part of the overall solution. " ■
-Sonal Patel is a senior
editor at POWER.
19
http://www.powermag.com
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