Working Together for a More Stable Grid—Here’s What You Can Do

As energy demand and temperatures continues to rise, both commercial and residential customers have the opportunity to work with their energy partner on solutions that help keep the grid stable for everyone. Here are some direct ways you can act on behalf of your home or organization to ensure power consumption stays low.

Demand Response

Demand response programs are designed to curtail energy use during peak times, which allows the grid to stabilize and also disperses energy use to “off-peak” times, where renewable sources of energy are more available to be implemented. 

Homeowners can enroll in a demand response program through their energy provider. Our program allows us to, gain access to your smart home device (like a Nest) to raise (or lower) AC temperatures minimally during peak events, thus cutting back on energy demand. Customers who enroll can often receive a rebate on their smart home devices for participation or even see savings on their electric bill—just by acclimating to a few more degrees on the thermostat.

For business owners working with us on demand response, we provide an audit of your business operations in order to identify opportunities to cut back on energy spend. In a demand response event, we would provide a notification to enact the program and shut down specific operations to curb power spend. In return, you are paid for your efforts based on the kilowatt-hours you saved during the peak usage period. Enrolling in a demand response program entails no out-of-pocket expenses—just operations that can be adaptable to power curtailment.  

4CP

For business customers, our 4CP program provides organizations the chance to work with us to scale back on electricity usage during peak demand. These peak demand events occur during summer months - June, July, August and September - when demand is highest on the grid.

While no one can precisely predict when these peaks will occur, we offer advisory services that know the market and monitor grid activity to help provide organizations with the greatest 4CP insight possible, allowing them to scale back on electricity usage. And the benefit? A one MW reduction during any of these periods can save a customer over $10,000 in demand charges over the next year.  It’s an easy way to cut back on energy spend during a pricing spike—and ensure costs stay low over the next year. 

It’s also important to note that a 4CP program is not the same as a demand response program. Demand response pays customers for curtailing load when prices spike on the grid. No payment is associated with 4CP; it is a cost savings program associated with demand on the grid, not peak electricity pricing. 

For more information or to enroll in one of our our 4CP programs today, enroll online or contact a Reliant representative.