Skip to content

Arizona Public Service chooses EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS to deliver innovative grid-edge DER management strategies

Kat O'Leary

November 6, 2018

New York, NY – Nov. 6, 2018 – EnergyHub, the leading provider of connected device and enterprise distributed energy resource (DER) solutions for utilities, and Arizona Public Service (APS), the largest and longest-serving electric utility in Arizona, have announced that, following a competitive bid process, APS will use EnergyHub’s platform to harness the value of connected thermostats, water heaters, battery energy storage, and solar inverters.

Arizona Public Service EnergyHub Mercury DERMS

APS is using EnergyHub’s Mercury distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) to dynamically manage its portfolio of grid-edge devices through peak demand reduction, load shifting and renewables matching, and solar inverter management and curtailment.

“Our customers today want more than just reliable power; they want cutting edge technology and they want to know how to manage their energy use to best fit their lifestyle,” said Marc Romito, APS’s Director of Customer Technology. “These programs offer that, while also helping us learn more about how customers interact with different technologies to more efficiently use the renewable energy already on our grid.”

The utility will use the Mercury DERMS to enroll, monitor, and control DERs across several DER programs, providing APS with leading-edge capability to use DERs to deliver a variety of grid services, including demand response and load shifting, while also providing APS with advanced load and capacity forecasting capabilities.

Load shifting: Water heaters and energy storage

Mercury allows APS to autonomously charge water heaters and batteries during periods of high solar generation and decrease load during system peak. The utility is using Mercury to create a recurring load relief schedule using water heaters and energy storage systems. The platform will leverage its sophisticated machine learning capabilities to continuously optimize these load relief schedules for both aggregations of devices.

Inverter management: Solar inverters

APS is using Mercury to more effectively deliver grid services from smart inverters, including remotely adjusting inverter settings and curtailing load. Mercury allows APS to manage natively supported and remotely configurable settings in solar inverters, including active power, reactive power, and ride-through settings. APS will also use the platform to curtail solar production at commercial sites during periods of excess solar generation — either through manual control or autonomously triggered by negative locational marginal prices (LMP) from CAISO.

Demand response: Connected thermostats

APS relies on Mercury to manage all aspects of its “Cool Rewards” Bring Your Own Thermostat® (BYOT) demand response program, including vendor management, marketing, customer enrollment, and demand response dispatch. APS is utilizing Mercury’s advanced demand response dispatch technology to maximize load shed while working within the utility’s time of use (TOU) pricing structure. EnergyHub is deploying unique pre-cooling strategies optimized for APS’s TOU pricing structure in order to keep customers’ homes cool throughout the day and effectively reduce load during afternoon peak hours.

“APS is among the first utilities to realize the full potential of grid-edge DERs,” said Seth Frader-Thompson, President and Co-founder of EnergyHub. “We look at the strategy we’re implementing with APS as an early example of how most utilities will benefit from grid-edge DERs in the near future, and we’re excited to partner with APS and their customers to deliver continuous grid services, increase reliability, and lower costs.”

EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS is used by 40 utilities across the United States to manage demand response, energy efficiency, and distributed energy resource (DER) programs. Combining sophisticated analytics with the largest ecosystem of connected device and DER partners in the industry, EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS is the industry-leading platform for helping utilities manage both customer- and utility-installed DERs.

About EnergyHub

EnergyHub is the connected device solution for utilities. EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS allows utilities to partner with their customers to deliver more powerful demand response and grid services using the industry’s leading ecosystem of connected devices and distributed energy resources. Our Bring Your Own Thermostat® service makes millions of existing connected homes available to utilities for demand response without a single truck roll. Dozens of utilities rely on EnergyHub to deliver critical demand response services. EnergyHub is an independent subsidiary of Alarm.com (NASDAQ: ALRM), the leading technology provider of connected home solutions. For more information, visit www.energyhub.com.

Related Posts

Avoiding gridlock: The essential role of managed charging
Electric Vehicles

Mar 21, 2024 | EnergyHub Team

Avoiding gridlock: The essential role of managed charging

READ MORE
EnergyHub and Toyota collaborate to support the electrical grid and improve EV ownership experience
Electric Vehicles, Press Releases

Mar 6, 2024 | EnergyHub Team

EnergyHub and Toyota collaborate to support the electrical grid and improve EV ownership experience

READ MORE
Avoiding gridlock: Why time-of-use (TOU) rates aren’t the long-term solution for managing local EV load
Electric Vehicles

Feb 13, 2024 | EnergyHub Team

Avoiding gridlock: Why time-of-use (TOU) rates aren’t the long-term solution for managing local EV load

READ MORE

Interested in keeping up with the latest dispatch from the grid edge?

Get our next post in your inbox.