GridConnect merges demand response tools

GridConnect includes a customer dashboard.

Demand response offers a way for utilities to increase efficiency while allowing their customers to make money, and is expected to represent an $8-billion-per-year market in the coming decade, according to a 2010 report by Pike Research. To manage commercial and industrial facilities’ demand response activities, Campbell, Calif.-based software company EnergyConnect in August launched a new Software as a Service solution.

Called GridConnect, the software merges tools to manage event- and price-based demand response on one platform. The software also includes a tool to participate in very short-term reduction opportunities, which will become increasingly important as more renewables are integrated into the grid, says EnergyConnect’s vice president of marketing, Rich Quattrini.

One challenge with price-based demand response programs is that they require customers to watch the market, something that they often don’t or won’t do, Quattrini says. GridConnect automatically monitors the market and sends e-mail notifications to customers of upcoming demand response opportunities, who can then decide whether or not to adjust their power use in response to price increases. GridConnect also includes a dashboard that shows grid status, scheduling opportunities, carbon emissions from electricity use and year-to-date accrued benefits.

EnergyConnect, which reported about $20 million in revenue last year, is targeting industrial, commercial and institutional customers, such as universities and shopping malls. For now, EnergyConnect is working with customers of PJM Interconnection in the Eastern United States on the price-based demand response offerings, but is looking to tap into the California market after state regulators finalize demand response rules, Quattrini says.