News Releases

SALT RIVER PROJECT wins for "THE BYOT DR program for hard-to-reach customers"

CPS ENERGY wins for "The FlexEV Smart Rewards and the FlexEV off-peak rewards program"

MEMPHIS, Tenn., May 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EnergyHub clients Arizona-based public utility Salt River Project and Texas-based CPS Energy were the winners of the 20^th PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) Awards. This annual awards program recognizes innovative approaches to flexible load management and initiatives to effectively manage end-use energy loads. The 20^th Annual PLMA Awards were presented on May 9 at the 47^th PLMA Conference in Memphis, Tennessee.

Salt River Project with EnergyHub, Google Nest, and TechniArt won the Pacesetter Program category for their "BYOT DR Program for Hard-to-Reach Customers."

SRP reached out to limited and moderate-income households, multi-family dwellings, and small-to-medium businesses via a kit program activated in partnership with EnergyHub, Google Nest, and TechniArt/Resource Innovations. The group worked together to develop marketing campaigns and program designs to overcome barriers that traditionally exclude these segments from demand response programs.

The utility calculated that this untapped customer segment represented approximately 200,000 - 300,000 households and 28,000 businesses. Example barriers include the complexity of installation in multi-family buildings and engagement challenges among traditionally marginalized communities. SRP is the first utility in the country to expand BYOT to businesses and multi-family segments with direct installation support and customer-tailored marketing campaigns, and can now rely on more than 78,000 thermostats to deliver flexibility.

Eamonn Urey, Program Manager at SRP said, "Our BYOT program for hard-to-reach customers levels the playing field.  Demand response programs create opportunities for us to work with all of our customers to ensure grid reliability."

CPS Energy won the Thought Leader category for "The FlexEV Smart Rewards and FlexEV Off Peak Rewards Programs." 

CPS Energy simultaneously launched two customer-focused charging programs for residential customers: FlexEV Smart Rewards, a direct load control program where customers agree to let CPS Energy make remote adjustments to their charging during peak hours; and FlexEV Off Peak Rewards, a program where customers earn incentives for shifting their charging to off-peak hours. By deploying these program designs simultaneously, CPS Energy provides a roadmap for the industry and allows utilities to maximize the impact of their EV programs while ensuring that utilities and their infrastructure can handle EV growth.

Jonathan Tijerina, VP of Enterprise Risk & Development at CPS Energy said, "Our customers are quickly embracing electric vehicles, and we are committed to developing EV-based flexibility programs that maximize benefits both to our customers and to the grid. Testing the FlexEV Smart Rewards and FlexEV Off Peak Rewards programs simultaneously provides us with critical insights that inform our long-term EV strategy, while helping us accelerate the benefits of our programs in the near-term."

With the involvement of more than 15 volunteer judges, all of whom are PLMA member practitioners, each award nomination is carefully evaluated by a group of industry peers using a rubric methodology. The award-winning programs demonstrate effective approaches to meeting peak energy loads while helping to support a stable, DER-integrated electric grid.

The PLMA Award Series of live webinars will be hosted from May through September 2023, and will also be published on PLMA's YouTube channel for the benefit of energy professionals everywhere. The webinar schedule will be published on PLMA's Calendar in May 2023.

About EnergyHub

EnergyHub is the leading grid-edge DERMS provider. Utilities rely on EnergyHub's DERMS platform to manage all distributed energy resources to serve grid and market objectives. EnergyHub works with over 60 utilities in North America to manage more than 1.3 GW of flexible capacity. We empower utilities and their customers to create a clean, distributed energy future. For more information, visit www.energyhub.com 

SOURCE EnergyHub