Bidgely Demand Response Trial Averaged 30% Load Reduction For Peak Events
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The Bidgely HomeBeat consumer engagement mobile app delivered an average of 30% load reduction for peak events in a recent trial in Australia.
Recently, Australian utility United Energy conducted a trial in its 640,000-customer service territory using the Bidgely HomeBeat consumer engagement mobile app to more effectively engage its customers in Demand Response — when utilities ask consumers to mitigate their energy usage through peak events in exchange for rewards.
The results of the trial were significant, with the app helping to average greater than 30% load reduction for peak events which occurred during Australia’s 2015-16 summer season.
“United Energy needed a residential demand-response solution that could engage customers and is scalable and cost effective to implement,” said Lawrence Law, product manager for United Energy. “We chose Bidgely’s HomeBeat for the customer trial because of its ability to engage customers through the mobile app and its scalability.”
Bidgely’s HomeBeat app “leverages the Bidgely insights platform to analyze both home-area-network (HAN) and AMI smart meter data streams to disaggregate and identify usage patterns for specific appliances.” This allows Bidgely to act as an in-home energy advisor, identifying ways in which the average consumer can reduce energy costs through unplugging certain always-on devices or turning off the air-con before going away for the weekend.
Specific to United Energy’s Demand Response concerns, the HomeBeat app also “gamifies” Demand Response, using in-app push and email notifications to alert users to times when they can be rewarded for using less electricity.
The results were impressive. United Energy held four events during the 2015-16 Australian Summer in which it targeted peak usage from 4:00pm through to 7:00pm. Bidgely HomeBeat helped United Energy achieve an average peak load shift of greater than 30% per user per event.
“The above chart shows a peak shift event with ActionDR. The green arrow outlines the peak usage shift during event #2 – showing a reduction of about 30%. The orange arrow points out how effective ActionDR is at communicating an event to end-users. There is a clear break in trend right when the event occurs.”
“Our mobile app, with disaggregation technology at its core, uses gamification with personalized goals and rewards, appliance-specific recommendations and dynamic incentives that vary based on predetermined thresholds to keep consumers highly engaged,” said Bidgely CEO Abhay Gupta. “ActionDR gives utilities the ability to achieve high peak shift results without the capital cost of installing a load control switch. This not only reduces the cost of residential demand response by over five times but also allows scalable deployment, thus enabling utilities to greatly extend their demand response program reach compared to traditional methods.”
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