When most of us hear the words “power plant”, it conjures up images of old industrial smokestacks. OhmConnect is going to change that. In the future, when you hear someone talk about a power plant you will also think of your home, your appliances, your solar. In short, you’ll think of something like Resi-Station, the “virtual power plant” that OhmConnect is launching in January of 2021.
The idea of asking consumers to save energy at peak times isn’t new. For decades, utilities have had programs that encourage customers to save energy when the grid is stressed. They call these “demand response” programs.
But OhmConnect has made three important changes to the traditional utility model. These changes have made it possible to embark on building the largest virtual power plant in North America.
First, OhmConnect put the customer at the center of everything. We built our entire company focused on you, the customer. We make participation simple, fun, and rewarding. And we always keep the customer in control. Instead of “demand response”, we like to call it “customer response”.
Second, we spent the past seven years building, testing, and improving a technology platform that, when dispatched, allows OhmConnect to instantly aggregate millions of small energy reductions into megawatts for the grid. Today, we can operate our fleet of homes and devices with essentially the same predictability and reliability as traditional fossil fuel plants.
Third, our software may be state of the art, but our customers don’t have to be. OhmConnect uses affordable, widely available technologies to make conserving energy easier for the customer -- and more predictable and reliable for the operator of the grid.
For example, a smart plug costs less than $20. It’s super simple, and takes less than 5 minutes to set up. You just plug your fridge or other appliances into it, and plug it into the wall. OhmConnect then cycles the plug off and on when the grid needs it -- paying you every time we do.
In addition to plugs, we integrate with smart thermostats, water heaters, car chargers, battery storage, and many other devices. The savings from each plug or thermostat may be small, but all together it adds up to something very big.
Already an OhmConnect customer but don’t have a smart plug or thermostat? Find a smart device now to start earning automatically!
In the old energy generating and distribution model, consumers paid their utilities to consume energy. In this new model, we pay you to save energy.
This is “people power” at its best -- or more accurately “people powering down”. We pay you to let us temporarily power down your unneeded appliances and devices so that we can keep the rest of the state powered up.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many California families are struggling right now. OhmConnect is a way to provide you an extra $50, $100 for saving energy. These incentives add up -- we are going to reward California customers with tens of millions of dollars over the next several years.
So not only are we going to support the grid, help keep the lights on, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we can also put money in the pockets of OhmConnect families. Win, win, win, win.
Not yet an OhmConnect customer? Join our energy saving community now.
Image source: REGlobal
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On this episode of Smart Energy, we're chatting about making small habit changes in the New Year, the energy grid with Elysia Vannoy, and answering a listener's question about what to do with old holiday lights.
