Past PLMA Award Winners from 2023 - 2001

Past PLMA Award Winners from 2023 through 2001 are listed below. The awards are presented annually at PLMA's spring conference to recognize the efforts of the recipients for their work in the previous calendar year.

20^th PLMA Award Winners Presented in 2023

PLMA Recognizes Leading Load Management, Demand Response, and DER Initiatives

PLMA proudly announced the winners of its 20th PLMA Awards on May 9, 2023: Those recognized by their peers for outstanding load management programs, initiatives, and achievements. Pictured above, receiving their organization's award on May 9, 2023 are, left to right: Josh Logan, Salt River Project Eamonn Urey, Salt River Project Scott Engstrom, GridX Eva Molnar, Southern California Edison Alex Emond, ICF Katie Van Horn, ICF Shawn Grant, Rocky Mountain Power Nick Bengtson, EnergyHub Julie Cain, CPS Energy Gary Smith, Sagewell Vince Faherty, Google

Congratulations to each of the Award Winning Initiatives!

Pacesetter Program Winners:

• Consumers Energy with Sagewell:
• The PowerMIDrive Program
• So. Maryland Electric Cooperative with ICF:
• The FlexTemp Pilot
• Salt River Project with EnergyHub, Google, and TechniArt:
• The BYOT DR Program for Hard-to-Reach Customers

Technology Pioneer

• Rocky Mountain Power:
• The Wattsmart Battery DR Program

Thought Leaders

• CPS Energy with EnergyHub
• The FlexEV Smart Rewards and the FlexEV Off-Peak Rewards Program
• So. California Edison with GridX and Oracle
• The TOU Transition

About the PLMA Awards Program

PLMA's Awards Program, held each year, recognizes industry leaders who, in the previous calendar year, created innovative ideas, methods, programs, and technologies to manage end-use loads, meet peak load demand, and support the successful grid integration of distributed energy resources. The overarching goal of the PLMA Awards Program is to identify and promote industry initiatives that can potentially benefit multiple organizations. To facilitate learning, each award winner is invited to present their work and successes, as well as the important lessons learned, via a 1-hour webinar for all PLMA stakeholders. 

PLMA webinars are presented live online, published on its YouTube Channel, and broadcast over its podcast, "PLMA: Load Management Dialogues" which is available from whereever you get your podcasts. Please check the PLMA Calendar to register for an upcoming webinar. 

Over the past 20 years, PLMA has presented ~105 awards to utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customer markets.

19^th PLMA Award Winners Presented in 2022

PLMA Recognizes Leading Load Management, Demand Response, and DER Initiatives

PLMA proudly announced the winners of its 19th PLMA Awards on April 5, 2022: Those recognized by their peers for outstanding load management programs, initiatives, and achievements. Pictured above, receiving their organization's award on April 5, 2022 are, left to right: Rachel Robinson, WeaveGrid Kristy Fleishmann Groncki, BGE Orly Hasidim, Universal Devices Mark S. Martinez, SCE Lon Huber, Duke Energy Stacy Phillips, Duke Energy Andy Taylor, Duke Energy Kevin Fox, Duke Energy Beth Reid, Olivine Vasudha Lathey, Olivine

Congratulations to each of the Award Winning Initiatives!

Program Pacesetters Award Winners:

• BGE for its Telematics-based Smart EV Program with WeaveGrid

• Olivine + PG&E for their Collaboration on Solving Problems for Diverse Customers and Situations

Technology Pioneer Award Winner:

• PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, and Universal Devices for the Demand Response Emerging Technologies Collaborative

Thought Leadership Award Winner: 

• Duke Energy for its Multiple Initiatives and Commitments to DR/DER Advancement
  

About the PLMA Awards Program
The annual PLMA Awards program recognizes industry leaders who, in the previous calendar year, created innovative ideas, methods, programs, and technologies to manage end-use loads, meet peak load demand, and support the successful grid integration of distributed energy resources. Over the past 19 years, PLMA has presented ~100 awards to utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customer markets.

About the 19^th PLMA Award Winners, presented in 2022

2022 Program Pacesetter: 
BGE for its Telematics-based Smart EV Program with WeaveGrid
Working with WeaveGrid, Baltimore Gas & Electric's (BGE) EV Smart Residential EV Program is among the first programs to use electric vehicle (EV)-based telematics to provide insights on customer charging behavior, and is also the very first program to use telematics to support an EV time-of-use (TOU) rate without the need of a networked smart charger or a utility installed sub-meter for EV charging. The programs use the vehicle’s computer to measure EV-specific electricity usage, and then offer lower cost off-peak charging to participants, resulting in a 16% improvement in charging during off-peak times.

In a high electrification scenario, EVs are projected to become up to 23% of utilities’ load in the by 2050, with “peak load” happening at the local level, as well as at the bulk system level. The BGE programs attract EV drivers to participate in load management activities by making enrollment and participation easy. In addition to load management activities, the use of telematics provides BGE with data on EVs that allows them to forecast where and when the peaks of the future will occur. 

BGE’s residential offerings included a rebate program designed to introduce customers to utility EV programs, support adoption of wifi-enabled L2 chargers with partners Chargepoint, Enel X, and Siemens, and increase data sharing between residential customers and the utility. The rebate program includes a $300 rebate to customers with a qualifying residential Level 2 smart charger in exchange for sharing charging data with the utility. These customers are also given access to a charging insights platform.

Customers began to enroll in the BGE program using the $300 rebate for the Level 2 charger, however, the majority of EVs in the BGE service territory were Teslas which come with a non-networked wall charger. In order to access the Teslas in its service territory, BGE  partnered with WeaveGrid to enable program participation via direct-to-vehicle telematics, eliminating the need for customers to install networked Level 2 chargers.

As a result of its streamlined onboarding process with a typical sign up time of 2 minutes, BGE experienced a rapid acceleration in driver enrollments, such that it was fully subscribed in just over two years, even though the utility was authorized to to administer 1,000 rebates over the course of 5 years. Building on the success of the telematics-enabled sign-ups, BGE launched an EV-TOU rate in January 2021 which offers a lower rate for off-peak EV charging, without installing a separate meter. As a result, BGE has enrolled a significant number of customers in the telematics-enabled EV TOU program without requiring customers to purchase additional hardware.

In its first year, BGE has achieved over 500 customers sign up for the EV TOU rate, with the majority of these customers participating via WeaveGrid’s telematics offering, which further demostrates the scalability of this type of technology. In addition, the EV TOU rate has proven to be easy for customers to understand, and with driver behavioral coaching and personalized messaging from WeaveGrid, BGE has successfully shifted charging patterns from 80% off-peak charging to 96% off-peak charging.** This significant shift in charging patterns was enabled by connecting directly to vehicles and avoiding secondary meter or hardware installation, representing a cost-savings for the utility and the customer.

Easy enrollment, high levels of participation, and a demonstrated shift in charging patterns shows this innovative program to be easily scalable to more EV drivers in BGE's service territory and easily replicable in other utility service territories. As a result, BGE is already expanding this offering to increase program eligibility across more automakers and models, and to further grow the program so that it can continue to push EV charging into lower-demand grid hours. BGE’s innovative telematics-enabled programs in partnership with WeaveGrid has demonstrated the potential to significantly increase sign-ups, participation, and levels of grid flexibility from broad customer participation in significantly less time than traditional programs. Additionally, these programs are the precursor to an Exelon-led Department of Energy project enabling advanced managed charging (active utility managed charging) in support of more complex grid management goals which will continue to build on these learnings. 

2022 Program Pacesetter: 
Olivine + PG&E for their Collaboration on Solving Problems for Diverse Customers and Situations

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Olivine were recognized for their ongoing collaborations in 2021. Together, they worked to unlock load flexibility across northern California for diverse customers, including low income residential customers from disadvantaged communities as well as for large commercial and industrial customers (C&I). 

Their work together leveraged the Olivine ClimateResponse^TM technology and services, specifically the ClimateResponse^TM App as an innovative technology solution for facilitating customer engagement and education to enhance peak load management. This App is integrated with the Olivine DER Platform and is a one-stop-shop for customers to monitor their home electricity usage, engage with demand response (DR) programs, participate in events, reduce emissions, and contribute to grid stability and resilience. The technology features of the app offer equitable access for all customers. It is also provided in multiple languages, is available as a mobile and web version, and engages customers through event notifications and reminders, energy savings tips, post-event energy and environmental impact data, and by tracking program earnings. 

The App was launched in 2020 for the implementation of the Fresno Energy Program, a behavioral DR program that delivered on average 0.65 kW of load reduction per household during events with residents in the low-income communities of south-central Fresno, CA. The load performance delivered by low-income customers through a behavioral DR program was many times higher than similar programs, and was made possible through the unique technological, engagement, and educational features of the Olivine app.

In the summer 2022, PG&E’s Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) will leverage the Olivine app for its residential customers. Olivine will also administer the ELRP for PG&E which focuses on aggregating dispatchable load in times of high grid stress and emergencies, and will include C&I customers, program aggregators, Virtual Power Plant (VPP) aggregators, and Vehicle to Grid aggregations. PG&E’s program implementation using both Olivine’s ClimateResponse^TM technology and its services provide a model for how utilities can rapidly design, launch, and scale efforts to respond to grid emergencies and mitigate current and future impacts of climate change.

2022 Technology Pioneer:
PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, and Universal Devices for the "Demand Response Emerging Technologies" Collaborative

Southern California Edison (SCE), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), and Universal Devices were recognized for the successful launch of the Demand Response Emerging Technologies (DRET) Collaborative. In 2021, Southern California Edison (SCE), San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) completed a coordinated trio of projects in 2021, under the Demand Response Emerging Technologies (DRET) Collaborative*, effectively demonstrating that smart speakers offer a highly promising channel for utilities to reach residential customers and facilitate beneficial changes in the way they use energy.

These projects each utilized “smart speakers” as a voice-activated gateway in assessing the ability for customers to interact with Amazon Alexa software and hardware solutions which created an intuitive interface between the smart speakers, the utility, in-home connected smart appliances, and the customer. To participate, a customer can either download an app to their phone or self-install an easily available in-home device, linking their utility account and smart devices.

This solution leverages a voice activated assistant to create a pathway for two-way instantaneous verbal communication between the utility and the customer about energy usage, outages, and alerts. It also enabled the customer to manage their smart devices in their home to maximize energy savings without having to individually control or program each end use.

The SCE and PG&E pilots utilized the “Energy Expert” Amazon skills technology developed by Universal Devices (UDI). The Energy Expert enables customers to interact with their home’s energy use using their smart speaker, providing customers with cost estimates, time-of-use (TOU) pricing, rate plan comparison and historical data, while also allowing customers to optimize their energy use through messaging, analytics, and end device integration. The skill was originally developed as part of a transactive energy project in Southern California and then advanced through follow-up development for time-of-use rate (TOU) load management. Additionally, through an in-home energy management system, the Energy Expert can facilitate automated control of connected smart devices, as set up by the customer.

This solution creates a platform to educate customers about energy savings, rebates, energy efficiency programs, California “Flex Alerts”, and other demand response opportunities and helps them to accomplish their energy goals at their convenience. In field tests the smart speakers were found to be an effective way to enable dynamic rate management in a way that residential customers like. The use of existing smart speaker systems in customers' homes also reduces cost for the utility and inconvenience for the customer. Each utility participating in the pilot had a unique program.

The California utilities realized that smart speakers are an ideal point of entry for residential customers because they have been widely adopted in homes across customer segments nationwide, with relatively consistent adoption across age groups, demonstrated increasing usage over time, and a high level of smart speaker owners encouraging peers to make a similar purchase. This pioneering effort to enhance Alexa in customer homes for load management makes this solution particularly cost-effect and easy to scale, and can revolutionize the way utilities interact with customers as they develop innovative future models of energy markets, load management, and demand response programs. For more information, www.dret-ca.com/smart-speakers. 

2022 Thought Leader:

Duke Energy for its Multiple Initiatives and Commitments to DR/DER Advancement

Duke Energy was recognized for its Thought Leadership in advancing numerous successful demand response programs across its territory. Its DR team manages these programs for all rate classes in five states, each on its own path to achieve the company’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050. Demand response will play a critical role in getting there, balancing load against intermittent renewable generation and pushing usage from peak, in addition to its day job of helping to ensure reliability.

The company runs traditional demand response programs with switches on appliances for residential customers, interruptible rates, and manual load reduction for non-residential customers. Quickly the portfolio is adding more tools to manage demand. EV managed charging, Small & Medium Business Bring Your Own kW, and AMI residential switches are in pilot planning stages. In-flight pilots include Bring Your Own Battery and flat billing with controllable thermostats. Duke is also looking at low income demand response programs and how to use the capability at the distribution level to defer or avoid investment on a smaller scale.

The proliferation of solar generation is creating new challenges for the company, which demand response can help address. In the mid 2010’s, North and South Carolina flipped from summer to winter peaking. A winter peak study was commissioned to identify opportunities for demand response tools to address it. After decades of building summer afternoon capability, the utility had to start building winter morning capability. Today there are over 11,000 residential customers participating in winter programs and the rate pilots have moved to permanent rates. Florida is reconsidering how its 1200MW of capability should be used as its peak is moving from the 5:00 hour to the 8:00 in 2024 due to the increase in solar generation. Both the MISO Seasonal Construct and FERC 2222 will impact the company’s Midwest operations. In all cases, the company is working on a portfolio of solutions to meet changes in technology and customer preference.

18^th PLMA Award Winners Presented in 2021

PLMA Recognizes Leading Energy Industry Load Management Initiatives

PLMA proudly announced the winners of its 18^th PLMA Awards in April 2021. Those recognized by their peers for outstanding load management programs, initiatives, and achievements included:

Program Pacesetters

• Eversource Energy's ConnectedSolutions Program
• Western Power's 100 MW Challenge (Australia)
• Consumers Energy, Uplight, and Google Nest

Technology Pioneer

• Enel X North America

Thought Leader

• The GridSavvy Community by Sonoma Clean Power

These winning initiatives were featured in a PLMA Load Management Dialogue webinar/podcast in the Summer of 2021. Recordings of these webinars are available on PLMA's Load Management Resource Center.

Click Here to Access Recordings of
the Presentations made by the
18th PLMA Award Winners!

About the PLMA Awards Program
The annual PLMA Awards program recognizes industry leaders who, in the previous calendar year, created innovative ideas, methods, programs, and technologies to manage end-use loads, meet peak load demand, and support the successful grid integration of distributed energy resources. Over the past 18 years, PLMA has presented over 95 awards to recipients who have included utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customer markets.

About the 18^th PLMA Award Winners, presented in 2021

Program Pacesetter:
Eversource Energy's ConnectedSolutions Program
Since launching in 2019, the Eversource ConnectedSolutions program has rapidly scaled up, surpassing enrollment goals and setting the bar high for demand management programs in the Northeast. Eversource ConnectedSolutions enrollment in 2020 surpassed goals by more than 60 MW, reaching 170 MW approved for targeted dispatch, plus 6.3 MW of storage capacity approved for daily peak shaving. Eversource continues to drive enrollments and plans to add several hundred more MW to its portfolio of DERs over the next few years. Eversource ConnectedSolutions is significant not only for the large demand reductions that can be achieved, but also for the diversity of customers and assets enrolled – including more than 600 C&I customers using a range of curtailment strategies and more than 33,000 residential devices including WiFi thermostats, EV chargers, residential battery storage and WiFi-connected A/C units. Eversource continues to explore other partners and devices to add to the program, as well as additional use cases for DERs beyond peak demand response to maximize customer and grid benefits. Eversource’s innovative take on demand response has surpassed high expectations and is a model for what is possible for demand management programs.

Program Pacesetter:
Western Power's 100 MW Challenge (Australia)
Western Power partnered with commercial and industrial businesses in Western Australia to build flexibility services into customer solutions as a way to create a more sustainable, reliable and innovative network for the future. With Western Power’s customers now not only consuming energy but also supplying energy, they needed to change the way the network is managed to enable this two-way flow of energy. At critical times of low loads, this means curtailing solar generation and increasing loads like charging batteries or scheduling processes such as pumping water.

Through this program, Western Australian businesses can determine the best way to manage their distributed energy resources in a way that meets their needs and provides network support, in return for compensation by Western Power.

The program was implemented in a very short time frame. Western Power selected Schneider Electric to provide the platform in April of 2020, with implementation, customer recruitment all happening before September 2020. The first of two control seasons concluded in November.

This innovative program is one of the ways this forward-thinking utility is smoothing out their ‘duck curve’ into a ‘platypus’ and enabling a future where more renewables can be connected to the grid.

Program Pacesetter:
Consumers Energy, Uplight, and Google Nest
Consumers Energy launched an ambitious Clean Energy Plan, which will eliminate coal and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Consumers Energy’s Clean Energy Plan is focused on increasing flexibility to the grid and the utility executed multiple key initiatives in 2020.

Consumers Energy developed and delivered a program in the spring of 2020 to give away Google Nest thermostats to Michigan households during the COVID-19 pandemic to help them save energy and money. Electric customers who received smart thermostats were also pre-enrolled in the Smart Thermostat Program, which shifts energy usage to off-peak hours — while also keeping households comfortable – on a few days each year. Consumers Energy placed more than 50,000 Google Nest thermostats in homes and enrolled 91.6% of eligible customers in the Smart Thermostat Program. Launched in only six weeks, Consumers Energy went above and beyond to help their customers during a pandemic lower their energy bills in a no-cost manner while also furthering its goals of a more flexible grid.

The program also served as an important starting point for its winter demand response program focused on natural gas customers -- both residential and businesses -- which launched in the fall of 2020.

Thought Leader:
The GridSavvy Community by Sonoma Clean Power
The GridSavvy Community was created by Sonoma Clean Power (SCP), the community choice aggregator in California's Sonoma and Mendocino counties. This innovative program moves away from traditional siloed approaches that segregate participation by customer classes and/or technology and instead offers a range of customer options to increase DER technology adoption.

GridSavvy Community customers receive attractive incentives for purchasing and enrolling smart devices such as thermostats, EV chargers, and heat pump water heaters. The program focuses on engaging low-income and equity customers, offering these customers higher incentives and financing to ease first-cost barriers to DER technology adoption.

Together with its partner Olivine, SCP aggregates these devices and dispatches to help shape and shift Sonoma Clean Power's customer load, reducing the utilities' need to buy pricier and dirtier power during periods of peak load. Because of of its focus on varied DER resources, the program is able to take advantage of multiple load modifying strategies, from event-based (with the EV chargers) to a daily load shift (with the water heaters). In the summer of 2020--when the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) called rolling black outs--the GridSavvy Community responded, keeping the lights on for customers and providing a source of local resilience.

Technology Pioneer
Enel X North America

Electric vehicles and smart charging infrastructure are poised to play a major role in providing critical energy services to the grid. Smart EV charging can provide intelligent real-time grid balancing and advanced grid support during times of high demand and limited energy supply. It has demonstrated success by operating EVs as “storage on wheels” during the 12 to 15+ hours per day that vehicles typically sit unused.

In 2020, California faced the worst fire season in its history and a record heatwave. Enel X's demand response, energy storage, and smart EV charging customers pitched in as part of a statewide effort among commercial and residential energy users to reduce strain on the grid.

With the increasing frequency of extreme weather conditions such as the 2020 California heatwave and 2021's winter storms which brought sub-freezing temperatures and power outages to millions across Texas and the U.S., there is an urgent need to expand demand-side distributed energy resources. Enel X enables industrial, commercial, and residential customers to earn cash flows and enhance resilience by supporting grid reliability through mechanisms such as vehicle-grid integration (VGI), automated load management (ALM), participation in dynamic rates, and V2G for backup-power and resiliency in the future.

17^th Award Winners presented April 2020

PLMA Recognizes Leading Energy Utility Industry Load Management Initiatives

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) announces six winners of its 17^th PLMA Awards. Those recognized for outstanding load management programs, initiatives, and achievements in calendar year 2019 are:

Program Pacesetters

• National Grid and EnergyHub for National Grid Connected Solutions
• Arizona Public Service and EnergyHub for APS Distributed Energy Resource Aggregations (Rewards Programs and Solar Communities)

Technology Pioneers

• Connected Energy (UK) Ltd for Battery Recycling in Belgium
• Austin Energy for Austin SHINES Project

Thought Leaders

• CPS Energy for Public Engagement
• City of New York, Department of Citywide Administrative Services for Building Operator Engagement

The Awards were presented on April 22, 2020 during a free online webcast as part of the 41st PLMA Conference. Each winning initiative will be featured in a free PLMA Load Management Dialogue webcast/podcast as follows:

• May 21 – National Grid and EnergyHub for National Grid Connected Solutions
• June 4 – Arizona Public Service and EnergyHub for APS Distributed Energy Resource Aggregations
• June 18 – Connected Energy (UK) Ltd for Battery Recycling in Belgium
• July 9 – Austin Energy for Austin SHINES Project
• July 16 – CPS Energy for Public Engagement
• Aug. 13 – City of New York, Dept of Citywide Admin Services for Building Operator Engagement

Webinar/podcast registration information will be available at www.peakload.org/calendar.

The 17^th PLMA Awards recognize industry leaders who created, during calendar year 2019, innovative ideas, methods, programs and technologies that manage end use loads to meet peak load needs and support successful grid integration of distributed energy resources. Over the past 16 years, PLMA has presented over 80 awards to recipients who have included utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customer markets.

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) was founded in 1999 as a community of experts and practitioners dedicated to sharing knowledge and providing resources to promote inclusiveness in the design, delivery, technology, and management of solutions addressing energy and natural resource integration. The non-profit association provides a forum for practitioners to share dynamic load management expertise, including demand response and distributed energy resources.

About the 17^th PLMA Award Winners

Program Pacesetter

National Grid and EnergyHub for National Grid ConnectedSolutions

National Grid’s ConnectedSolutions program is the nation’s first pay-for-performance-based Bring-Your-Own-Battery Demand Response (DR) program. The program has shown how to cost-effectively incentivize customers to purchase batteries and allow the utility to discharge those batteries to reduce peaks on the grid. The program provides residential, commercial, and industrial battery owners across Massachusetts and Rhode Island with incentives from $200-400/kW-performed per year in exchange for providing battery capacity to support a more sustainable and efficient grid. The program embraces consumer choice by enabling participation with battery integrators from Tesla, Sunrun, Generac, SolarEdge, and Sonnen through an integration with a single Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS) platform provided by EnergyHub. With the goal of enrolling 17 MW of load relief by the end of 2021, the program is on track to provide more than $15,000,000 per year in system benefits, which will reduce costs for all customers. This program started as a National Grid program, but it has been so successful that it has since been adopted by Eversource and Unitil. These utilities work together to offer one consistent program for customers.

Arizona Public Service and EnergyHub for APS Distributed Energy Resource Aggregations (Rewards Programs and Solar Communities)

Arizona Public Service (APS) has implemented programs that reimagine the relationship between a utility and distributed energy resources (DERs) and that will be instrumental in its commitment to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050. APS uses EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS platform to dynamically manage a portfolio of grid-edge assets including thermostats, batteries, water heaters, and solar inverters for an array of grid services. APS leverages DERs for peak demand reduction, load shifting and renewables matching, solar management, and advanced load and capacity forecasting. Services are available year round, multiple times a day, unlike event-based calls for DR. They have implemented these programs with both bring-your-own and direct install models. APS has evolved from a DERMS early-adopter to a pioneer of a customer-centric approach to managing the grid.

Technology Pioneer

Connected Energy (UK) Ltd for Battery Recycling in Belgium

Connected Energy (UK) Ltd.’s system installed at the Umicore industrial site in Belgium reuses Renault Kangoo batteries which previously powered 48 vehicles in France. The system provides a frequency response service to Elia, the Belgium system operator, to help it balance electricity supply and demand for network stability. It is the first time 'second-life’ batteries have been used at an industrial scale in this way in the country. The batteries have a combined energy storage capacity of 720 kWh and can deliver 1.2 MW in power. With solution project partner ENGIE, the battery is optimised in real-time as part of a synchronized asset stack providing revenue generation and power quality management for global materials technology and recycling group Umicore who also recycle EV batteries. The installation will give the company insight into the process of wear in the batteries, which can help to build better batteries.

Austin Energy for Austin SHINES Project

The Austin SHINES project (Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV) pilots the integration of utility-scale, commercial, and residential resources on the distribution grid and under the holistic coordination of a DERMS platform (Distributed Energy Resource Management System). The DERMS was provided and developed with the utility’s project partner, Doosan GridTech, and performs as a tool enabling varied and stacked asset management use cases. In addition to controlling fielded assets, of solar PV and battery energy storage, at both utility and aggregated customer sites, the software helps model different mixes and configurations of assets to determine the best value proposition against cases of holistic controls, autonomous and no controls of DERs (Distributed Energy Resources). Hands-on deployment, in combination with modeling, has offered a rich field from which to gather a better understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and realities of DER integration that pioneers a new gridscape. The methodology for management was documented as a replicable and configurable technique to serve other utilities, across multiple jurisdictions.

Thought Leader

CPS Energy for Public Engagement

Recognizing the need to protect their customers from potential increase in energy costs resulting from projected peak load demands and megawatt availability in the ERCOT market, CPS Energy’s leadership challenged the Demand Response (DR) team to grow the company’s DR program for summer 2019 by 28 megawatts. The team created a plan to grow through behavioral DR, wifi thermostats, and both commercial and public customer engagement. Multiple new program options were created or expanded, including DR Coaching for commercial customers and an expanded behavioral DR program to 300,000 residential customers. To achieve this goal, a public engagement campaign engaging a local news station was created. The plan focused on adding an energy peak awareness message as part of the weather segment of the newscast. When a DR event was anticipated, the weather reporter would encourage viewers to lower energy usage throughout the day. At the end of the day, a follow up thank you message was announced during the nightly newscast. Through this effort of directly engaging the customer, CPS Energy exceeded the goal by adding over 40 MWs of DR to the portfolio. To promote friendly competition, customers in the program were able to see their kwh reduction versus their neighbors and where they ranked in energy savings.

City of New York, Department of Citywide Administrative Services for Building Operator Engagement

The NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS), through its Division of Energy Management, had the vision to expand an initial electricity-only Demand Response program that encompasses 470 facilities across 30 city agencies and institutions. It’s the single largest contributor to grid relief in the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) NYC Zone J territory. In addition to Demand Response, DCAS’s work expanded to include Real-Time Metering (RTM) and Load Management programs. The RTM program has deployed near-real time metering for electricity use across 500 facilities, monitoring 55% of municipal peak load. The program now also includes monitoring of gas and steam usage. To help drive these programs, DCAS partnered with NuEnergen to develop data visualization tools, offer mobile access, and provide training opportunities. DCAS has also created a dedicated, in-house team with engineering and analytical expertise, undertaken proactive relationship management with facility operators, launched hands-on, peer-driven learning environments in partnership with the City University of New York’s Building Performance Lab, and offered staff recognition of outstanding efforts.

16^th Award Winners presented April 2019

PLMA Recognizes Leading Energy Utility Industry Load Management Initiatives

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) announces eight winners of its 16^th PLMA Awards. The Awards will be presented during the 39^th PLMA Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Those recognized for outstanding load management programs, initiatives, and achievements in calendar year 2018 are:

Program Pacesetters

• Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Olivine for Excess Supply Demand Response Program
• Portland General Electric and Enbala for Distributed Flexibility at Scale
• Indiana Michigan Power and Tendril for Residential Integrated Demand Side Management Approach

Thought Leaders

• Efficiency Vermont, Green Mountain Power, and Dynamic Organics for Flexible Load Management
• Eversource Energy for Commercial & Industrial Active-Demand Management Demonstration

Technology Pioneer

• Bonneville Power Administration, Portland General Electric, and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance for Water Heater Communications
• Rocky Mountain Power for Frequency Dispatch
• Viking Cold Solutions for Using Thermal Energy Storage as a Grid Asset

The 16^th PLMA Awards recognize industry leaders who created, during calendar year 2018, innovative ideas, methods, programs, and technologies that manage end-use loads to meet peak load needs and support successful grid integration of distributed energy resources. Over the past 15 years, PLMA has presented over 74 awards to recipients who have included utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural customer markets.

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) is a non-profit association founded in 1999 that serves over 150 member organizations as the Voice of Load Management Practitioners. PLMA seeks to advance practical applications of dynamic load management and distributed energy resources by providing a forum where members educate each other and explore innovative approaches to program delivery, pricing constructs, and technology adoption. Learn more at www.peakload.org.

Load Management Dialogue Series with 16^th PLMA Award Winners

16^th PLMA Award-Winning Load Management Initiatives

Eight transcripts of webcast interviews with the 16^th PLMA Award winners for best dynamic load management programs, initiatives and achievements.

About the 16^th PLMA Award Winners (in alphabetical order)

Bonneville Power Administration, Portland General Electric, and Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance for Water Heater Communications

A team from the Pacific Northwest spearheaded by three individuals — Tony Koch of the Bonneville Power Administration, Conrad Eustis of Portland General Electric, and Geoff Wickes of Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance — advanced the testing of the new ANSI/CTA-2045 communications standard to connecting important energy storage assets — electric water heaters and heat pump water heaters. This collaboration and research proposes new economics that will have important impact on DR planning as well as understanding of how to validate and increase energy savings from a new generation of “connected” technologies.

This project had a series of firsts:

• The largest smart water heater pilot ever implemented
• The first large demonstration of heat pump water heaters participating in DR events
• Eight utilities cooperating to implement the same event schedule
• Multiple DR events every day with over 600 events in 220 days
• Coordination with key water heater manufacturers to prove out communications and commands

Efficiency Vermont, Green Mountain Power, and Dynamic Organics for Flexible Load Management

This project demonstrated the importance of partnerships for successful peak load management to benefit Vermonters, reducing carbon and the overall cost of the energy delivery system. Efficiency Vermont had a long-term customer relationship with Brattleboro Retreat, a healthcare facility in Southern Vermont. The project renewed utilization and controls optimization for a 1990s legacy, 3.2 MWh chiller and ice storage system.

Green Mountain Power, the local utility committed to fighting climate change, developed a strategy to share grid benefit and savings with customers from shifting load off peak. Dynamic Organics developed a custom controller and dashboard incorporating weather, electric grid demand and pricing, and HVAC system data simultaneously to allow remote control and automated operation of the ice storage system. A trial of the system during an early summer peak event was successful, and that led to development of an innovative pilot (currently enrolling 10 more customers with diverse flexible assets) to demonstrate grid and customer value. The goal is to then make this a permanent rate option for commercial customers who have flexible load.

Eversource Energy for Commercial & Industrial Active-Demand Management Demonstration

Eversource introduced an innovative holistic approach to reducing peak demand among commercial and industrial (C&I) customers. Their active-demand management demonstration utilized a wide range of technologies, including battery storage, ice storage, phase change material thermal storage, advanced software and controls and wi-fi thermostats, to engage large and small C&I customers. Not only did the demonstration successfully engage with a variety of C&I customers, it also reduced the 2018 regional peak by 8.7 MW.

This demonstration project shows that taking a holistic approach to demand reduction is necessary for the long-term viability of demand-reduction programs and paved the way for the development of an approach to peak-demand management featuring various technology types, each using open communication protocols that connect to a single dispatch platform.

Indiana Michigan Power and Tendril for Residential Integrated Demand Side Management Approach

Indiana Michigan Power (I&M) worked with Tendril to implement Orchestrated Energy, a connected thermostat demand response program dramatically shifting peak load and improving the energy efficiency beyond that of smart thermostats, without sacrificing customer comfort. I&M uses this program as a customer engagement tool that also provides demand response load while keeping customers comfortable. I&M envisions this program as another way to become a trusted energy advisor to their customers on how to utilize the connected home.

IM Home ran on 2,132 thermostats in Indiana and 423 thermostats in Michigan from May 2018 to September 2018 leveraging smart thermostats from ecobee and Honeywell. The program saved 80,220 hours of cooling runtime in Indiana and 8,736 hours of cooling runtime in Michigan. This works out to more than 263 MWh saved in a little more than four months of operation, allowing the program to deliver gross realization rates of more than 100% in both states. This is in addition to the traditional savings already delivered by smart thermostats.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company and Olivine for Excess Supply Demand Response Program

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) Excess Supply Demand Response program (XSP) demonstrates capabilities of demand-side resources to consume or decrease load as a service to the grid to address intermittency due to oversupply of renewables generation as distributed generation accelerates. The California PUC Load Shift Working Group noted in 2018 that the XSP was the only existing load shifting participation model. Designed to capture the full value of flexible resources to the grid it has been incorporated into initiatives across various consumer types including the California Energy Commission EPIC Total Charge Management project, PG&E’s Electric Vehicle Charge Network Load Management Plan, and the Pittsburg USD School Bus Renewables Integration Project.

In 2018, events were triggered using PG&E developed excess-supply forecasts. Of the total number of dispatches in 2018, 221 of the dispatched hours aligned with the CAISO’s reported renewable curtailment hours for 385 MW of consumption. On average, participants in the XSP can expect eight dispatches per month. Regulatory efforts have already begun in California to develop new models of participation for resources that can respond to load increase dispatches and lessons from the operation of the XSP have already gone on to inform these efforts. The XSP is the first step of what is to come with regards to developing participation models that can fully utilize resources with these flexible characteristics as a service to the grid.

Portland General Electric and Enbala for Distributed Flexibility at Scale

Portland General Electric (PGE) has created a technology agnostic, interoperable virtual power plant (VPP) in collaboration with Enbala that enables PGE to offer control, optimization, and demand management of an entire fleet of DERs across various customers, vendors and programs. This multi-program-multi-vendor-ecosystem allows for the customization across DER asset-types, location, participation schedules, and service offerings, while providing visibility into, and integration of, data in an approach that is scalable, sustainable, futureproof, and customer-focused.

PGE’s VPP now includes over 100 large industrial loads, large commercial loads, and small commercial loads; over 150 commercial smart thermostats, and nearly 3,000 multi-family smart water heaters. The VPP is currently integrating a combination of solar, storage, and smart thermostats at a Fire Station with the City of Portland to demonstrate a turnkey microgrid solution in partnership with Powin Energy. PGE is also rolling out a Time-of-Use (TOU) Program and Peak Time Rebate (PTR) Program that will target 58,000 customers in 2019.

Rocky Mountain Power for Frequency Dispatch

PacifiCorp demonstrated that Demand Response (DR) resources can be used to deliver GridScale Fast DR to meet frequency dispatch and BAL 3 requirements. This project demonstrated that the Cool Keeper system could be used in an additional capacity with very tight control response. PacifiCorp designed and implemented the automatic dispatch of residential customers enrolled in the Rocky Mountain Power Cool Keeper program utilizing Eaton’s two-way devices and Yukon portal to respond to frequency dispatch signals. To comply as frequency dispatch, the resources must immediately begin providing support once dispatched and be fully activated within 50 seconds from event detection. The BAL 3 measurement is a performance curve during this resource dispatch period. The solution resulted in an average of 64 MW of BAL 3 resources and over 100 MW of load drop across several events during the 2018 summer DR control season. Performance was measured and calculated using two second system metered data collected by the PacifiCorp Energy Management System.

This innovation is a grid scale solution using fast-acting residential DR resources to support the bulk power system. Utilities currently use generating resources to perform this function, but as plants are retired or begin operating at lower levels additional balancing resources are required. The Cool Keeper system provides approximately 200 MW of operating reserves to the system using over ~ 100,000 residential AC resources.

Viking Cold Solutions for Using Thermal Energy Storage as a Grid Asset

Commercial & industrial freezers (10,000 to 200,000+ square feet) in the food and beverage, foodservice, grocery, and cold storage industries require massive amounts of electricity to keep frozen food product temperatures stable between 0 and -20 degrees Fahrenheit. These facilities maintain the highest demand per cubic foot of any industrial category and globally spend over $40 billion on energy every year.

Viking Cold Solutions uses thermal energy storage systems (TES) to utilize frozen food facilities in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Australia as grid assets that enable operators to shed 300-500 kW for up to 13 hours each day. TES systems leverage the facility’s existing refrigeration system to store energy in the form of cold and discharge that energy over long periods of time when it is most economical for the grid and the facility operator. These systems have no mechanical components and use phase change material, to absorb up to 85% of the heat infiltration while refrigeration is cycled off, and intelligent controls to balance temperature requirements and energy use. With a levelized cost of energy of less than 2¢ per kWh, many power providers have added TES technology into their efficiency and demand management programs to improve efficiency an average of 26%, help address the variability of renewables, and unlock large-scale demand management opportunities for a fraction of the cost of other storage mediums.

15^th Award Winners presented April 2018

PLMA Recognizes Leading Energy Utility Industry Load Management Initiatives

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) recognized six winners of its 15^th PLMA Awards during the 37^th PLMA Conference in Coronado, California. Those recognized as the best demand response and other load management programs, initiatives and achievements from calendar year 2017 are:

Program Pacesetters

• ComEd's Peak Time Savings Program
• Gulf Power's Energy Select Program

Thought Leaders

• Austin Energy's Green Building Initiative
• Jennifer Potter

Technology Pioneer

• Hawaiian Electric Company's Regulation Reserves Program
• Nest's Solar Eclipse Rush Hour Rewards Program

Learn more by viewing and downloading the 15th PLMA Award-Winning Load Management Initiatives Compendium at CLICK HERE and listen to these webcasts (click on link for free recording access):

• May 3 Richard Barone, Hawaii Electric with Dain Nestel, ecobee
• June 7 Beth Crouchet and Sarah Talkington, Austin Energy, with Nicholas Corsetti, National Grid
• June 14 David Eggart and Tommy Gardner, Gulf Power with Jason Cigarran, Itron
• June 27 Jennifer Potter with Danielle Sass Byrnett, NARUC
• July 19 Aaron Berndt, Nest with Nick Corsetti, National Grid
• August 2 Brian Kirchman, ComEd and Alan Mellovitz, Accenture with Dain Nestel, ecobee

The 15^th PLMA Awards recognize industry leaders who created, during calendar year 2017, innovative ideas, methods, programs and technologies that manage end use loads to meet peak load needs, mitigate price risks, and support successful grid integration of distributed energy resources. Over the past 14 years, PLMA has presented over 68 awards to recipients who have included utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customer markets.

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 as the Voice of Demand Response Practitioners. PLMA's over 140 member organizations share expertise to educate each other and explore innovative approaches to demand response programs, price and rate response, regional regulatory issues, and technologies as the energy markets evolve represent a broad range of energy professionals. Learn more at www.peakload.org.

About the 15^th PLMA Award Winners (in alphabetical order)

Austin Energy's Green Building Initiative

Austin Energy influences city of Austin codes through partnership with Green Building (GB) initiatives managed by its Customer Energy Solutions activity. In order to build energy efficient homes and businesses, local code amendments were added to facilitate DR program participation. Energy codes require new buildings with automation systems controlling HVAC and/or lighting systems to have OpenADR capabilities and smart/WiFi thermostats to be installed in new single and multifamily construction. GB and DR programs work together to promote DR participation through the rating process. Ensuring commercial design teams follow a set of DR implementations, buildings can earn additional points on the rating when enrolled in the utility's commercial and industrial program Load Cooperative. The utility further encourages installation of smart/Wi-Fi thermostats with $25 rebate for single and multifamily customers. The utility partners with an implementer to operate a retail program with national home improvement stores to offer instant discounts for products such as LED lighting and ENERGY STAR appliances. Thermostats are advertised with signage to promote PPT thermostats and rebates to influence customer choice.

ComEd's Peak Time Savings Program

ComEd's Peak Time Savings (PTS) is an opt-in behavioral DR program offered to residential customers with smart meters. PTS, which has been operational for three summers since 2015, is a first-of-its-kind program to be offered in the Midwest, paying participants for voluntarily reducing consumption during summer Peak Time Savings Hours when electricity demand is typically high. PTS enrollment began in the fall of 2014 with approximately 20,000 customers enrolling in the first 90 days, resulting in one of the most successful program launches in ComEd's history. Since then, enrollment has risen to upwards of 230,000 customers, with more than 250,000 expected to participate in the summer of 2018. Not only is the program cost-effective, but market research has also confirmed significant customer satisfaction. Most recently, ComEd launched the integration of If This Than That (“IFTTT”) which has demonstrated the commitment to leveraging AMI capabilities while providing customers with comprehensive IoT enablement. Leveraging the IFTTT platform, ComEd customers have the power to completely customize how their connected devices respond to pricing signals and Peak Time Savings events. Customers can set their devices to interact with ComEd and IFTTT whether they have an entire line of Connected Home products or a single smart light bulb. This, along with the potential integration with EVs and DERs, gives customers an immense opportunity to save money when their devices automatically curtail energy usage in response to DR events and changes to market price.

Gulf Power's Energy Select Program

As the first fully-automated price-based demand response program, Energy Select was designed to reduce generation needs, better use existing capacity, and enhance customer satisfaction. The Energy Select rate features four tiers that better reflect the cost of producing electricity during those periods, and customers pre-program central cooling and heating systems, electric water heaters and pool pumps to respond automatically to the different prices. As many utilities have struggled to successfully implement price-based DR programs, this “set it and forget it” approach enables easy customer participation. Over the years, the program's enabling technology has evolved to meet the changing needs of Gulf Power and its customers. The program initially used one-way paging for communication into the home and customers had to program the devices through the thermostat. Using Itron's IntelliSOURCE Enterprise software, Energy Select now leverages customer's Wi-Fi networks for two-way communications and devices are programmed through a mobile device or computer. The technology improvements have dramatically increased enrollments, improved customer satisfaction and reduced service costs. Gulf Power deserves recognition for being a pioneer in price-based demand response as well as for its commitment to innovation that has significantly increased the value of the Energy Select program for the utility and its customers.

Hawaiian Electric Company's Regulation Reserves Program

Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) has successfully utilized customer assets to provide utility grade Grid Services. Faced with the 100% Renewable Portfolio Standard target, HECO will use demand response and other demand-side resources to provide various grid services needed to maintain the grid reliability of the islands, including capacity, regulation reserves, and frequency response services. Regulation reserves is the most complex service requiring continuous real-time operation with variable controls every four seconds. HECO's Demand Response team, led by Richard Barone and supported by OATI technology, has defined and managed this highly innovative demand response initiative, truly moving demand response and distributed energy resource management to a higher level, to enhance and strengthen grid reliability while allowing greater levels of renewable generation.

Jennifer Potter

Jennifer's utility and research experience cover transmission and distribution grid operations, conventional and renewable sources, distributed energy resources (DER), integration of demand-side resources, time-based pricing and demand response (DR). Her economic research includes cutting-edge work on market potential and economic analysis research on demand response, time-based pricing, DERs, and energy efficiency. She has provided technical assistance to state policymakers, on the behalf of the Department of Energy, to Hawaii, California, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, and Oregon. She has published a number of reports, including as a lead author of the California Demand Response Potential Study for the CPUC, over the last year that has been recognized as significant contributions to the industry. Her published work and reputation have been leveraged for a number of webinars and conference appearances, as well as presentations to state policymakers around frameworks and considerations for demand response and integrated demand-side management.

Nest's Solar Eclipse Rush Hour Rewards Program

Nest achieved unprecedented consumer engagement in its Rush Hour Rewards program during the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 by recruiting 750,000 Nest devices to shift 700 MW of cumulative demand. During the eclipse, many grid operators predicted that solar energy production would be reduced by as much as 9,000 MW. Nest launched a wide-reaching marketing campaign to recruit customers to reduce their cooling energy use during the eclipse by opting into a special Rush Hour Rewards event with just one click on their Nest Learning Thermostat. The number of customers who participated is unparalleled in any other demand response program to date. The success of this campaign demonstrates that consumer-friendly, multi-channel marketing campaigns coupled with a simplified one-click opt-in experience can drive consumer engagement significantly to manage energy load.

14^th Award Winners presented April 2017

Nashville, Tennessee – April 4, 2017 – PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) announced eight winners of its 14^th Annual PLMA Awards. The Awards were presented during the 35^th PLMA Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Those recognized as the best demand response programs, initiatives and achievements from calendar year 2016 are:

Program Pacesetters

• AEP Indiana Michigan Power Company's Demand Response Service Emergency Program
• Central Hudson Gas & Electric's Peak Perks Program
• City of New York's Municipal Demand Response Program
• Portland General Electric and AutoGrid for Pricing and Peak Time Rebate Program
• Target Corporation's Demand Side Energy Program

Thought Leaders

• KCP&L and Nest for the KCP&L Thermostat Program
• Alectra Utilities, Advantage Power Pricing
• Brett Feldman, Navigant Research

The 14^th PLMA Awards recognize industry leaders who created, during calendar year 2016, innovative ideas, methods, programs and technologies that manage end use loads to meet peak load needs, mitigate price risks and support successful grid integration of distributed generation assets. Over the past 13 years, PLMA has presented over 60 awards to recipients who have included utilities, product/service providers, end-users, and individuals responsible for demand response efforts targeted to the residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural customer markets.

PLMA (Peak Load Management Alliance) is a non-profit organization founded in 1999 as the Voice of Demand Response Practitioners. PLMA’s over 130 member organizations share expertise to educate each other and explore innovative approaches to demand response programs, price and rate response, regional regulatory issues, and technologies as the energy markets evolve represent a broad range of energy professionals. Learn more at www.peakload.org.

Watch the Award-Winning DR Initiatives Webinar originally aired on February 1, 2018

Click HERE to download the presentation for Award-winning Demand Response Initiatives presented January 24, 2018 at Distributech 2018 in San Antonio.

Click on the titles below to view the DR Dialogue for each award winner.

About the Winners - Program Pacesetters

AEP Indiana Michigan Power Company's Demand Response Service Emergency Program

This utility’s innovative approach sets a new bar for commercial and industrial customer peak load management programs in the Midwest. The program offers a peak load reduction program for over 110 commercial and industrial customer site that provide just over 55 MW of peak load curtailment to the utility. Customers participating in the program can earn a curtailment credit or payment. There are three reasons for the success of this program. First, the customer performance obligations are fair and simple--they follow the requirements developed by PJM. Second, the opportunity for aggregators to work with all customers that sign-up for the rider to create a "virtual power plant" makes the program much more accessible for many participants. Finally, the utility’s ongoing efforts to work with customers and aggregators to make the program work for everyone involved is the key piece in all of this.

Central Hudson Gas & Electric's Peak Perks Program

In response to New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative, Central Hudson is coordinating a demand response program into its electric transmission and distribution planning to offset anticipated peak load growth in three distinct zones. This will enable Central Hudson to defer new infrastructure projects in each of the three zones, reducing future bill pressure for customers and creating an additional earnings opportunity for the company. The program targets all customer classes with offerings that include residential direct load control equipment using two-way communicating Wi-Fi thermostats and load control switches, a customer engagement portal, as well as customized curtailment agreements for Commercial & Industrial customers. Comverge's IntelliSOURCE cloud-based software provides the foundation for the program, and the utility also uses Comverge services for participant recruitment as well as program administration and support. In six months, Central Hudson achieved more than 30% participation of eligible customers within the targeted zone with the most timely capacity need. Central Hudson also exceeded the total first-year MW target for all three zones, achieving 5.9 MW of load reduction versus a target of 5.3 MW.

City of New York's Municipal Demand Response Program

The City’s program encompasses over 340 facilities across 20 city agencies and organizations. For summer 2016 period, the program reduced over 58 MW, over 10% of load of the locations engaged, which comprise 40% of the City's municipal peak load. Recent achievements include consistent 100% portfolio performance and over $9.5M in summer 2016 revenue. Drivers that helped the program progress include training for city agency administrators and building operations staff, year-round participation in NYISO, and expanded participation in Con Ed summer programs, City oversight supported by industry expert (NuEnergen)allowing agencies to keep earned revenue, recognition of top performers, and last, but not least, integration of real-time monitoring (RTM) technology. One of the most exciting and significant features of the program is an online platform developed and maintained by NuEnergen, based on specifications by the City’s program oversight team, to track program metrics and to monitor load in near-real-time.

Portland General Electric and AutoGrid for Pricing and Behavioral Demand Response Program

As part of their smart grid strategy, PGE is leveraging the AutoGrid Flex SaaS technology platform to deploy and evaluate the relative effectiveness of 12 pilot programs. These programs are engaging more than 10,000 residential customers with behavioral demand response opportunities and/or dynamic rates. Assisted by CLEAResult, PGE is using the project to determine which programs and pricing structures are most effective at engaging customers and delivering reliable load sheds. During the summer and winter of 2016, PGE deployed 14 DR events that achieved an average of 1.1 MW of load shed per event across all 12 programs. PGE will use the result of the pilot to extend the best program designs and rate structures to all qualified customers in 2019. When fully rolled out, the program is expected to lead to at least 30 MW of peak load reduction.

Target Corporation's Demand Side Energy Program

This national retailer’s Demand Management Program, led by David Johnson, has influenced how Target operates its’ stores, leveraging new and existing technology and control strategies to deliver energy savings through peak demand reduction and participation in Demand Response programs. Target’s Peak Load Management program has grown from a pilot at 43 locations to a program impacting over 700 stores since 2013. In addition, Target has grown its Demand Response program to over 800 locations enrolled throughout the U.S. delivering 800,000 kWh of energy reduction in 2016 and over 70mW of capacity. Strong industry partnerships and prioritization of aggressive internal demand management goals has enabled Target to continue to leverage building automation systems, data aggregation, and analytics strategies to drive energy conservation and peak demand reductions.

About the Winners – Thought Leaders

KCP&L and Nest for the KCP&L Thermostat Program

This Midwestern utility is continuing its pioneering nature with a customer centric approach to revamping its 70 MW DLC Thermostat Program. Driven by the mantra of being a “Trusted Energy Partner” to its’ customers, KCP&L has partnered with Nest Labs and CLEAResult, two companies that share KCP&L’s philosophy on customer experience, to transition an initial 35,000 participants from legacy 1-way technology to 2-way verifiable Nest Learning Thermostats within its Missouri territory. The program, which is also open to new customers, kicked off in April 2016 with the objective of leveraging the intuitive design and ease of installation of the Nest Thermostat to offer customers “Do It Yourself”, CLEAResult provided Professional installation or “Bring Your Own” options to join KCP&L’s Thermostat Program. This model, which optimizes towards 70% DIY Installations, increases the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the program, allows for exponential scalability and rewards customers for empowering themselves with a $50 incentive for self-installation. By employing innovative marketing tactics, a unique delivery mechanism, as well as a best in class enrollment portal and Learning Thermostat, in 2016 the Thermostat Program cost effectively delivered over 8,000 Nest Thermostats to customers- 200% of the Program Year One goal.

Alectra Utilities’ (formerly PowerStream) Advantage Power Pricing (APP)

This program was designed in collaboration with the Ontario system operator and regulator to motivate and enable substantial voluntary demand response. APP combines enabling technology with revenue-neutral dynamic rates to deliver average DR impacts of over 1 kW during critical periods. Meaningful customer bill savings - average of $74 of summer commodity cost savings – are achieved with over 70% of participants not having previously participated in DR or EE programs. Public funding continues to be renewed, and the pilot continues to provide important information as the provincial regulator moves forward along its roadmap for the provision of optional alternative regulated rates.

Brett Feldman, Navigant Research

Brett published research reports on leading-edge topics in the demand response/demand side management industry in 2016, including Bring Your Own Thermostat DR, Integrated DSM, Dynamic Pricing, DR Global Market Data and Forecasts, and Demand Response Management Systems. These reports have been leveraged into webinars, presentations, and articles for various industry organizations and publications throughout 2016. He planned and moderated a PLMA DR Dialogue on FERC Order 745 Supreme Court Decision (read the transcript or listen to the recording) within days of the announcement in January, and was a guiding force in the completion of the joint AESP/PLMA/ADS (SEPA) DR industry survey.

13^th Award Winners presented April 2016

13^th winner representatives shown left to right: John Steigers, Energy Northwest; John Wellschlager, Bonneville Power Administration; Steve Nguyen, Bidgely; Wannie Park, Ceiva; Wendy Brummer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company; Carlos Nouel, National Grid; Justin Chamberlin, CPS Energy; Thomas Artau, Duke Energy. Not pictured: Scott Jarman, Austin Energy; Michael Brown, NV Energy

Program Pacesetter – Utility: Duke Energy Florida's EnergyWise Home Program

With 418,000 participating customers and 550,000 Direct Load Control switches installed, this 653 MW load management program allows customers to reduce their energy use when demand is high by participating with their centrally-ducted heating and cooling systems, electric water heaters and pool pumps, in exchange for monthly bill credits. In 2015, the utility began transitioning from an internally developed application and legacy one-way paging infrastructure, to Comverge's IntelliSOURCE Demand Response Management System and two-way Wi-Fi and cellular DLC switches. The new platform includes variable and geographic load control, real-time asset and inventory management, and paperless, IPad-based work order management system. The utility has developed a way to more effectively and more frequently utilize resources for short-term energy demands, controlling water heaters more than 140 times per year, on average. This is an industry-leading example of continued applied technology innovation.

Award accepted by: Thomas Artau, Duke Energy
Learn more at: www.peakload.org/DukeFla

Program Pacesetter - Utility: The Pacific Northwest Aggregated Demand Response Commercial Demonstration Project

This trial project combined multiple technologies and partners in a 35-megawatt demand response resource for use as a 10-minute balancing reserve integrating intermittent renewable generation by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Aggregated by Energy Northwest, a regional public power joint operating agency, and its public power utility partners, the resource operated with great success over its 12-month run. The partners created from scratch a scaleable demand response platform providing real-time SCADA control and performance reporting for a distributed energy resource portfolio including industrial load, battery energy storage, ADR 2.0 automated controls, and dispatchable voltage regulation. The project offers model for public power entities to serve as a demand response resource aggregator.

Award accepted by: John Wellschlager, Bonneville Power Administration, and John Steigers, Energy Northwest

Program Pacesetter - Utility: Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Smart AC Program

This program has over 150,000 customers with one-way paging load control devices that provide peak period load reduction of approximately 80-100 MW. When PG&E's team set out to explore two-way load control switches and communication systems they discovered that the type of information available and the frequency of the information from these solutions were not adequate to mitigate identified operational risks, and effectively manage their program. PG&E lead a consortium of utility reps and worked with vendors who collaborated to reconfigure their products. The result is an increase in benefits for using Smart Grid-based, two-way load control switches. As other utilities across the country look to upgrade their one-way load control systems to two-way, they will benefit in the groundwork PG&E has done.

Award accepted by: Wendy Brummer, Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Learn more at: www.peakload.org/PGEACDR

Technology Pioneer – Utility: Austin Energy

Austin Energy was one of the first to successfully harness the BYOT (Bring Your Own Thermostat) concept. It did so by partnering with technology manufacturers, and actively promoting the utilization of open standards and protocols to effectively integrate the BYOT participants into their residential DR program. The utility enhanced its legacy C&I DR programs utilizing a similar strategy that incorporates open protocols and EPRI's Demand Response Automation System in its C&I AutoDR program. An example of the results are that one building that historically was able to reduce load by about 25 KW per event has increased its load shedding to over 100 KW with Auto DR.

Award accepted by: Scott Jarman, Austin Energy
Learn more at: www.peakload.org/AustinAwardDR

Technology Pioneer – Utility: National Grid

This utility is recognized for its comprehensive combination of technologies and strategies to achieve demand response through both dynamic prices and direct load control as well as behavioral energy efficiency through web applications and in-home displays. National Grid's Smart Energy Solutions program provides customers smart thermostats, load control devices, web apps, and in-home displays to deliver real-time energy use and compelling messages alongside personal photographs. With CEIVA Energy's software, the utility can segment customers, monitor and control a range of smart energy technologies, enable the smart meter home area network, and access full reporting and analytics. The result is a seamless end-to-end solution for the utility and its customers that integrates a range of technology providers, including Itron, Cisco, GE, Simple Energy, Verizon, and Carrier.

Award accepted by: Carlos Nouel, National Grid with Wannie Park, Ceiva
Learn more at: www.peakload.org/NatGrid

Technology Pioneer – Utility: United Energy

This Australian utility achieved significant peak load reduction per home by leveraging the Bidgely ActionDR solution, delivered via the HomeBeat consumer mobile application. The customer trial delivered personalized targets and real-time feedback to each customer via the HomeBeat app on their energy reduction efforts during the peak events. Customers on the trial also receive targeted energy saving tips based on disaggregation of each home's actual energy use as well as performance-based rewards for changes in behavior. Using the app meant information could be delivered in a simple, actionable and timely manner.

Award accepted by: Steve Nguyen, Bidgely

Thought Leader – Project: CPS Energy's My Thermostat Rewards Holiday Splash

This Black Friday holiday promotional campaign partnered with retail & thermostat partners and social media, to combine Black Friday Specials and Holidays offers with a healthy BYOT rebate. The result was 1,745 new enrollments in which was a 1.5 to 2 times lift at retail, 6 times improvement in year-over-year enrollment, a program growth of 40% during the 6-week push. This well timed and attention-grabbing campaign during the Holiday season has great potential for “leveraging” by other utilities have struggled to raise awareness of Bring-Your-Own-Thermostat program offerings.

Award accepted by: Justin Chamberlin, CPS Energy
Learn more at: http://www.peakload.org/CPSAwardDR

Thought Leader – Individual: Michael Brown

Michael Brown conceptualized and then led the creation of the PLMA Demand Response training series. From concept in the Summer 2013 to a full-fledged program launch in 2015, there is now a curriculum and exam for each course in a three-part training series: Introduction to Demand Response, Demand Response Program Design and Implementation, and Demand Response Markets. Over 130 industry professionals participated in the courses during 2015. This effort created a solution that has benefited the electric utility industry by expanding the knowledge exchange among mature demand response practitioners and those new to the workforce or recently reassigned from elsewhere in the industry.

Award accepted by: Michael Brown, Berkshire Hathaway, NV Energy

12^th Award Winners presented April 2015

12^th winner representatives shown left to right: Awards Co-Chair Brian Solsbee, TVA with Mona Tierney-Lloyd, EnerNOC; Howard Ng, Comverge; Susan Marinelli, Pepco Holdings; Rachel Moses, Greenlots; Kristen Walsh, BGE, and Awards Co-Chair Ray Pustinger, AESC

Program Pacesetter - Regional Transmission Operator: Amprion Secondary Reserve Program

This program brought – for the first time ever in Germany – an aggregated pool of industrial loads to participate in a secondary reserve program originally intended for participation of generation assets. Program requirements included; Full capacity within 5 minutes, with 1MW minimum after 30 seconds in the called direction (positive, i.e. load reduction; negative, i.e. load increase), five-second interval communication of real-time pool capacity & forecasted capacity, and ability to follow a dynamic, modulated signal.

Award accepted by: Mona Tierney-Lloyd, EnerNOC

Program Pacesetter - Utility: Baltimore Gas & Electric PeakRewards

This program has demonstrated the ability for a residential demand response program to thrive over a period of years, make effective use of rapidly evolving technology, and do so while achieving a 92% customer satisfaction rate. The program currently serves 320,000 customer homes providing 417 MW of direct load control, has been successfully integrated into BGE's behavioral demand response program and continues to engage customers with new features including PeakRewards mobile applications & Wi-Fi thermostats.

Award accepted by: Kristen Walsh, BGE

Program Pacesetter - Utility: Pepco Holdings, Inc. Energy Wise Rewards and Peak Energy Savings Credit

Energy Wise Rewards (EWR) is a residential and small commercial demand response Direct Load Control program established in 2009. In 2013, PHI introduced the Peak Energy Savings Credit (PESC) as a behavioral demand response alternative for customers who prefer to reduce their energy use themselves. To avoid customer confusion over the two very similar demand response programs, Pepco markets the programs together as “Two ways to save. With PESC, you control your own energy reduction; with EWR, we will automatically reduce your air conditioner energy use for you.” Together, the two programs deliver more than 520 MW of load reduction and have achieved participation rates in excess of 50% in several markets, including Pepco Maryland, demonstrating that utilities can gain strong market acceptance through excellent program design and communication.

Award accepted by: Susan Marinelli, Pepco Holdings, Inc.

Technology Pioneer - Solutions Provider: Greenlots Sky Smart Charging

Greenlots and Southern California Edison are currently conducting the largest Electric Vehicle (EV) demand response pilot in North America. It is noteworthy that the SCE/Greenlots pilot is the first large scale pilot to use de facto open standards protocols OpenADR 2.0b and OCPP in combination for electric vehicle charging. The pilot has deployed 80 Level-2 chargers as the basis for a consumer behavior study which will evaluate fee-based charging and demand response (DR) at various SCE work facilities. The year-long pilot will study and even influence charging behavior through dynamic pricing and Vehicle to Grid Integration (VGI).

Award accepted by: Rachel Moses, Greenlots

Thought Leader - Solutions Provider: Comverge Evolution of Communications for Demand Response eBook

The debate around communications methods for demand response has become increasingly vibrant amongst industry stakeholders. In speaking with its utility clients, Comverge observed the need for a straightforward way to compare the pros and cons of each communications technology and understand their evolution to date. As a result, Comverge launched its thought leadership campaign with the goal of helping electric utilities better evaluate the communication methods available for their demand response programs. The Comverge Evolution of Communications for Demand Response eBook tackles the topic of sorting out wide array of DR communications options, including paging, advanced metering infrastructure, ZigBee gateways, cellular, and Wi-Fi. The eBook has been downloaded more than 500 times, has been featured in numerous editorials, and has been described by utilities as insightful, unbiased and understandable.

Award accepted by: Howard Ng, Comverge, Inc.

11^th Award Winners presented April 2014

11^th winner representatives shown left to right: Awards Chair Greg Wikler, Navigant, with Michael Brown, NV Energy; Ray Pustinger, Enerliance; Rich Philip, Duke Energy; Michel Losier, New Brunswick Power; Brett Feldman, Navigant

Duke Energy for Outstanding Residential Demand Response Program Design Award

Duke Energy's Power Manager® is an innovative step in residential air conditioning cycling program design. When an AC event is called, Power Manager® customers deliver a specific kW reduction based on their enrollment. Power Manager customers sign up for the level of contribution to match their goal (either 1.5 kW or 1.0 kW) participation level (their Target Cycle). The program design provides a pay-for-performance model. In addition to a one-time installation bill credit, a variable bill credit is provided for each cycling event. At year-end 2013, the Power Manager program had over 100,000 customers with a capacity 102 MWs of load relief at the meter. Power Manager with Target Cycle has been operational for over five years. Power Manager passed the UTC, TRC, and RIM program requirements.

Award accepted by: Rich Philip, Duke Energy

Kilroy Realty for Outstanding Demand Response Customer Award

Kilroy Realty has integrated an innovative suite of solutions, service providers and tools that provide a practical means to execute viable Auto-DR projects based on today's economics and in so doing has demonstrated a vision for the future value of this Auto-DR functionality. The solutions and providers include California utility sponsored Auto-DR incentives and on-bill financing with third-party HVAC Auto-DR platform, DR aggregation, and demand visualization tools. In her role as Vice President of Sustainability, Sara Neff continues to demonstrate industry leadership while advocating for energy efficiency and demand response as a speaker and panelist at numerous industry events. During 2013, Kilroy installed and enrolled 1.6 MW of Auto-DR capacity in the SCE service area with 6 buildings totaling 1 million square feet.

Award accepted by: Ray Pustinger, Enerliance

Navigant Research for Outstanding Demand Response Research Award

Navigant Research has published an outstanding report on the status of the world market for Automated Demand Response, along with a 10-year forecast on where the market is heading. Brett Feldman led and directed the collection of data from primary research and analysis. This thorough analysis for the next big step in the Demand Response industry derived from the primary and secondary research collected and, combined with the analysts' industry expertise, will be the seminal source for those wishing to understand what can and will likely happen in the next few years in this developing industry. The report gives system operators, distribution utilities, and curtailment service providers new information about the potential for ADR in their DR business.

Award accepted by: Brett Feldman, Navigant Research

New Brunswick Power for Innovative Application of Technology Award

New Brunswick Power is leading a consortium of Maritime Utilities including Maritime Electric, Nova Scotia Power, Saint John Energy as well as the University of New Brunswick to create a true "plant following" resource. This project is part of Natural Resou‎rces Canada, Clean Energy Fund. This plant controls 1,600 devices in 1,270 customer locations allowing 16.5 MW of load to participate in real-time in response to wind power forecasts with strong coordination between the system operator and participating utilities. The Project relies on customer loads having some kind of energy storage capability (for instance, water heaters, electric thermal storage heaters or commercial refrigeration units). The PowerShift Atlantic Research Project represents the next evolution of demand response, a more integrated and intelligent load management process that combines various load resources, real-time load management, and integration with the system operator.

Award accepted by: Michel Losier, New Brunswick Power

NV Energy for Outstanding Commercial Demand Response Program Design Award

NV Energy's mPowered program is one of the first to combine DR and energy efficiency for commercial buildings. NV Energy incorporated a cloud-based energy optimization software to its commercial customer base in return for participation in DR events. After the success in its own facility, NV Energy extended the program to some of its largest commercial customers - including casinos, government and commercial buildings. The cloud-based software works directly with the existing building management system and does not require new hardware or sensors, making installation of the system a simple process. Currently the commercial portion of the mPowered program covers about 3 million square feet with a load response of about 1.2 megawatts. That is expected to rise to 10 megawatts by the time the demand response season kicks off in 2014, with a goal of 75 megawatts by 2016.

Award accepted by: Michael Brown, NV Energy

Oklahoma Gas & Electric for Outstanding Investor-Owned Utility Demand Response Program Award

Oklahoma Gas & Electric's voluntary SmartHours program is designed to encourage customers to shift their kilowatt usage from the peak hours of 2 - 7 p.m. weekdays to remaining off-peak periods. During these off-peak hours, the SmartHours rate per kWh is almost 50 percent of OG&E's standard rate. Extensive research has pinpointed customers' primary interests in the program are saving money, having control of their comfort and savings, and knowing that there is no risk in trying out SmartHours for a year. At the end of 2013, OG&E had enrolled more than 80,000 customers in SmartHours. As of April 7, 2014, 10,638 more customers had switched to SmartHours (205 percent of the YTD goal). OG&E achieved these enrollment numbers during the coldest winter and spring in a decade – a time of year when customers generally are not concerned about summertime electric bills. With eight months remaining in the three-year campaign, the goal of enrolling 120,000 customers is well within reach.

Award accepted by: Brett Willison, Oklahoma Gas & Electric

Sacramento Municipal Utility District for Outstanding Public-Owned Utility Demand Response Program Award

Sacramento Municipal Utility District has fully executed ten demand response pilots and installed an integrated DRMS, investing $27M in demand response research and infrastructure in less than four years. This included a demand response dynamic pricing pilot with 100,000 customers, including default dynamic pricing and rigorous experimental research methods. The results disproved longstanding claims against both low impacts and customer rejection of dynamic pricing by demonstrating peak load savings up to 26% by behavior alone, extremely high enrollment rates in the default treatment groups, and no adverse effects in special interest groups such as low income. Evaluations showed significant peak load savings across the portfolio, with residential daily peak load reductions of 6%-41%, event peak load reductions of 12%-43%, and summer energy savings of up to 4%. In the Commercial sector, PowerDirect achievements of 3.4 MW peak load reduction with lighting peak reduction savings of 50-60% were realized.

Award accepted by: Craig Sherman, SMUD

10^th Award Winners presented April 2013

Innovative Application of Demand Response Award: Bonneville Power Administration

Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) conducted two pilot projects to draw upon demand response (DR) capacity from commercial and industrial sites to balance both increases and decreases in supply from renewable resources, as well as traditional generation. One pilot tested the ability of a paper mill to provide up to 40 MW of bi-directional capability by controlling pulp refining. The program also tested a number of other businesses, including lumber yard, hospital, wastewater, and government office loads for a total of 8 sites and another 900 kW of load impact. BPA also worked closely with customer utilities and five refrigerated warehouse sites throughout the Pacific Northwest as part of the Smart End-Use Energy Storage and Integration of Renewable Energy Pilot. These sites were enabled for automated DR functionality and thus were able to provide more than 1,300 kW of load reduction and more than 800 kW of load increase, as directed through BPA's demand response automation server, within 10 minutes of notification. The BPA program serves as an innovative model for how demand response can be used to help manage the intermittency of the Northwest's growing renewable energy resources.

Outstanding Program Participation Award: Dakota Electric Association

Dakota Electric Association's EnergyWise® has reduced the utility's system peak demand by more than 20% when wholesale market prices are at their highest. Over $18 million in savings in 2012 were passed on to 47% of all members through billing credits or lower off-peak rates. Members who participate in an off-peak program allow Dakota Electric to temporarily interrupt power to connected loads or start standby generators. The end-uses include electric water heaters, electric space heaters, central air conditioners, pool pumps and hot tubs, farm irrigation systems, electric vehicles, and even whole buildings. This award recognizes Dakota Electric's program success and ability to achieve a significant amount of customer participation and load reduction.

Outstanding Collaboration Award: Nashville Electric Service

Nashville Electric Service (NES) along with Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) participated in a joint collaboration utilizing 52 owned substations to respond to a TVA called peak demand management event or to manage/mitigate its own monthly peak demand. The successful implementation uses the Landis+Gyr Gridstream two-way radio-frequency communications platform throughout an advanced distribution communications network down to individual end points for monitoring and/or control. The program is a milestone in initiatives supporting NES and TVA to meet contracted load reduction of 40 MWs. NES contributed 49.2% of mitigated capacity short fall to the overall TVA 2012 Virtual Power Plant program, saving over $3.4 million in demand charges. NES and TVA were supported by MW Consulting in creating the novel strategy and applications being used to realize the program's benefits. To make this program successful, NES collaborated not only with TVA but with a number of its customers in order to implement a form of demand response not often seen in the industry.

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: PECO

PECO developed an innovative approach to dealing with a challenging regulatory requirement to reduce its load by 4.5% during the top 100 hours of system load between June 1 and September 30, 2012. The company developed a Demand Response Management System to assess high probability load hours, to predict how much DR to dispatch, and what portions of the DR portfolio to call during high probability hours. In the summer of 2012, all of PECO's top 100 hours of system load occurred over an eight week period, with 10 hours falling on Saturdays which rendered them non-callable DR hours. In spite of this challenge, and due in large part to the construction of a diverse DR portfolio consisting of traditional dispatchable DR, Conservation Voltage Reduction, and resultant DR from energy efficiency PECO was able to achieve the 4.5% load reduction target (355 MW). Prior to the summer of 2012, PECO's greatest DR performance was 179 MW for a total of 4 hours. PECO was able to solve a very complex implementation challenge with this successful program that is deserving of an award.

9^th Award Winners presented April 2012

Innovative Marketing Award: Con Edison of New York for coolNYC smartAC load management study

CoolNYC was a 2011 residential load management program, funded and enabled by Con Edison with the use of ThinkEco's modlet plug-load management solution and the associated smartAC thermostat. The coolNYC study allowed tenants with room air-conditioners (RACs) to receive the modlet and thermostat, free of charge. Through the use of the modlet, Con Edison customers were able to better control their energy use during the hot summer months. More specifically, the modlet (a) enabled thermostat- and time-based control of window ACs, (b) empowered consumers with remote control and energy-use monitoring of window ACs via browser or smart phone apps, and (c) allowed users to pre-schedule their window ACs on/off. The objective of the study was to be able to enroll RACs into a demand response program in a way that maintained consumer comfort. During the summer of 2011, this technology was deployed in a large residential mixed-income complex in New York City. Flyers were put up across the four-building complex, and emails were sent from the building management office to tenants. During a two-week period in May 2011, about a quarter of the buildings' tenants volunteered to participate in the study. Modlets were handed out in early June, and the majority of participants set them up on their own. June was set aside as baseline monitoring month, and scheduling and 5-hour demand response events were introduced in July. In implementing the events, participants were notified via email 24 hours prior to an event, followed by a reminder 2 hours prior to the event. Participants were automatically opted in unless they actively opted out through the software or using the technology.

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: EnerNOC working with Transpower, Genesis Energy and Meridian Energy

For Interruptible Load in the New Zealand Instantaneous Reserves market. With more than 70 percent of electricity coming from renewable sources (hydro, geothermal and wind), New Zealand's electrical grid is one of the lowest-carbon systems in the world. However, balancing frequency on the grid is a constant challenge, especially at high rates of HVDC transfer and with the large single shaft Combined Cycle Gas Turbine plants on the grid. Much of New Zealand's electricity is hydro, generated from lakes and rivers in the South Island, while most of the electricity demand is in the North Island, in particular, the Auckland region. Consequently, large amounts of electricity need to be transmitted long distances between the two islands. It is more efficient to transmit electricity over long distances by high voltage direct current (HVDC). Through the Instantaneous Reserves markets, market participants like generators can bid spinning reserve and like major industrial sites and distribution companies can bid Interruptible Load into these markets. EnerNOC has partnered with other market participants to help them enter the Instantaneous Reserves market. EnerNOC has now built an aggregator portfolio in the North Island that can deliver over 100MW of fast response (less than 1 second) Interruptible Load. This is an AutoDR product. To date, EnerNOC has delivered the dispatched quantities in all the under frequency events. For a grid emergency event on December 13, 2011 when the Huntly power station tripped over 500MW off the grid, EnerNOC delivered over 120MW of fast reserve which contributed to arresting the frequency fall. This demonstrated the benefits of having an aggregated portfolio which is fast response (<1 second), reliable as firm capacity, diverse and robust across different sectors and at 50 different Grid Exit Points and provides a staggered restoration after events.

2011 Trailblazing Award for Innovation: U.S. Green Building Council

USGBC LEED Pilot Credit 8: Demand Response was created to increase participation in Demand Response technologies and programs that make energy generation and distribution systems more efficient, increase grid reliability, and reduce environmental impacts and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Projects are required to design buildings and equipment to participate in, or have the ability to participate in, Demand Response programs through load shedding or shifting. On-site electricity generation does not meet the intent of this credit. This pilot credit resulted in a partnership between the USGBC and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) called the Demand Response Partnership Program (DRPP). The DRPP is a collaborative effort between the USGBC and EDF that is bringing together both sides of the grid. Through DRPP, selected utility hosts, solution providers, technology providers and program sponsors along with owners and managers of LEED-registered and certified buildings will participate in a pilot program that has both action and research components. Throughout the pilot program, data will be collected to reflect the actual results and experiences of DRPP participants. The particularly innovative result of LEED Pilot Credit 8: Demand Response is the DRPP. Through this partnership, USGBC and EDF will collaborate with selected utility hosts, solution providers, technology sponsors and program sponsors to foster participation from commercial customers into existing utility, ISO or curtailment provider demand response programs. By leveraging the relationship USGBC has with over 45,000 LEED buildings, and utilizing the new LEED credit for demand response, thousands of buildings are reachable in this groundbreaking initiative. USGBC has demonstrated the ability to drive widespread adoption of green building practices and is currently certifying approximately 1,700,000 square feet per day of LEED projects.

8^th Award Winners presented April 2011

Outstanding Achievement by a Commercial End-User Award: New York University Langone Medical Center (w/ Constellation Energy).

NYU Langone Medical Center has shown that they are very committed to continuously improving their DR capabilities. They also are very innovative in their quest to find new things that they can do DR-wise, and don't just go for the obvious measures. Also commendable is that they are able to participate in the NYISO program, and also the Con Edison distribution relief program. The Center had won a PLMA Award in 2007 but has clearly demonstrated that they continue to pursue excellence in their demand response and energy efficiency programs.

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: Rocky Mountain Power (w/ Comverge)

Rocky Mountain Power had a lot of positives in this program including the fact that they achieved 110 MW's of load reduction that qualified as 10 minute non-spin reserve, had good economics (impressive B/C ratios especially the TRC), and an innovative use of incentives vis-à-vis the pay for performance customer incentive mechanism. Comverge also should be recognized for delivering a solid program that yields significant results for the utility.

Innovative Application of Technology Award: Bonneville Power Administration and Seattle City Light

Bonneville Power Administration and Seattle City Light have demonstrated a very futuristic application of DR that might just be the next wave of a Smart Grid application. The fact that they were doing AutoDR for winter conditions was impressive and a first-of-its-kind. They also were working with buildings of significant size in and complexity. Finally, this is a noteworthy example of DR in the Pacific Northwest and BPA/SCL (and LBNL) should be acknowledged for their pioneering efforts.

7^th Award Winners presented April 2010

Exel Corporation: Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Commercial End-User

Exel, a division of Deutsche Post DHL, is the leading contract logistics provider in the Americas and has sites throughout the United States, Canada and Latin America. Exel provides innovative, customized supply chain solutions and third-party logistics to some of the world's best-known and most successful companies. The company's supply chain design, consulting, warehousing, fulfillment, and transportation services help companies be more productive, more efficient and more competitive. CPower (formerly ConsumerPowerline) is a leading national demand response aggregator. The company works with clients and business partners across North America and the United Kingdom, including in the major energy markets of New England, New York, the Mid-Atlantic region, Texas, California and Ontario. In 2009, CPower and Exel joined forces to create a demand response pilot program that would allow Exel to participate in several major demand response markets while enabling the opportunity for full evaluation and possible scaling of programs on a national basis. As part of Deutsche Post DHL and its GoGreen climate protection program, Exel has committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2020.

JCP&L, a FirstEnergy Company: Award for Innovative Application of Technology

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a FirstEnergy company, implemented an Integrated Distributed Energy Resources (IDER) Management Program in a targeted area of its New Jersey service territory and operated it successfully during the 2009 summer season. The IDER Program involved the deployment of control devices for each participating customer's central air conditioning system(s), and includes a control switch, a temperature sensor and a two-way data communications network and is branded EasyGreen for customer solicitation and participation activities. The IDER control system enables real-time monitoring and control of non-critical end use equipment that enabled JCP&L to deliver and measure specific levels of load management in targeted areas, which supported management of peak loads during high system load conditions. The IDER Program is designed to test and confirm operational and market-based benefits of smart grid principles. The IDER control system monitors and controls non-critical customer electrical loads at both the individual and at aggregated levels of circuit, substation transformer and substation. This control system monitors available load based on program rules, verifies operations, detects tampering and documents impacts. JCP&L used the IDER system to monitor the available manageable load and initiated load reduction events on the targeted circuits and substations. The IDER Program has been selected as an EPRI industry smart grid demonstration host site and is part of FirstEnergy's recently awarded Smart Grid Investment Grant project.

Idaho Power: Award for Demand Response Program Achievement

Idaho Power Company (IPC) implemented its FlexPeak Management Program to reduce summer peak demand and delay the construction of new peaking power plants. The program provides up to 65 MW of reliable demand response capacity to Idaho Power. The program can be called from June 1 – August 31 from 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Monday-Friday, non-holidays. Participants receive 2-hour notification, and events last from 2-4 hours. FlexPeak Management has already achieved impressive results in its first year of implementation. IPC called 8 demand response events in a 4-week period during the summer of 2009. Average performance across all events was over 140 percent against nominated capacity. In its first year alone, FlexPeak Management has proved to be a valuable peak shaving resource in the summer months, and has had a positive effect on the grid, the local community, and the environment. FlexPeak Management prevents the need for more traditional, supply-side resources. The program provides IPC with cost effective, zero-emissions capacity to address its peak demand challenges, and IPC customers benefit from a more reliable energy supply. IPC FlexPeak Management Program is managed by EnerNOC, Inc., a leading provider of commercial and industrial demand response solutions for utilities. EnerNOC's innovative technology, extensive expertise, and quality customer service have helped IPC make their commitment to using cost-efficient, environmentally friendly alternatives to peaking power plants a reality.

6^th Award Winners presented April 2009

Outstanding Achievement by a Commercial End-User Award: Target Corporation

for its proactive participation in a variety of demand response programs throughout the country. Target's objective was to create a demand response program that would enable the company to register a statistically significant number of stores in each major demand response market. Based on the results of the pilot, they would then determine whether their participation in demand response could be stepped up to a significantly larger scale. As of June 1, 2008, Target was positioned to shed over 13 megawatts of load among 12 utilities at 116 stores. Their plans for 2009 include increasing the DR capability to several hundred stores in all major markets in the United States with over 35 megawatts of peak load reduction capacity. They have centralized their DR program operations to one central location at the company's Commissioning Department. This centralization effort has allowed the company to participate in every test or actual event within the required notification period – in some cases with as little as 10 minutes notification. Target participates in DR programs in PJM, New York, New England and California. Target is one of the first broadline retailers to participate in demand response and prove that it can be highly successful in the retail in industry and not impact the customer experience. Target deserves special recognition for their participation and continued dedication to being a valued resource in DR markets across the United States.

Innovative Application of Technology Award: Cass County Electric Cooperative

Cass County Electric Cooperative, based in Fargo North Dakota, founded its load management program in 1976 in response to the oil embargo. In 2003, Cass County developed the Incremental Pricing Plan (IPP) which has three time zones that correlate to system conditions. Customers are notified of the Green, Yellow or Red zone through an LED traffic light that is wired directly at each customer location. For the majority of the year, the customer is in the green zone, and receives an off-peak energy rate. During a critical peak period, the red zone, the customer either curtails their electrical loads or they pay a high coincident demand charge. The yellow zone peak conditions are symbolized by a yellow light, in which load management is not required, however higher energy prices are invoked. Customers can either elect to reduce their demands, initiate backup power systems, or pay the higher price. The IPP program has allowed commercial, industrial, and agricultural customers much lower operating costs by minimizing their loads during on-peak periods. By adding the middle “yellow” zone, the IPP program offers flexibility for customers to manage their loads and power costs and the result is a very popular program among these customer groups. The IPP program has 684 customers and serves a total of 3,048 accounts. The IPP program serves as an excellent example of how an electric cooperative has utilized a fairly straight forward technological solution to implement an innovative application of demand response program.

Outstanding Integrated EE/DR Award: City of Ames, Iowa Electric Services

for its efforts to integrate energy efficiency and demand response program efforts. Smart Energy is a demand-side management initiative that has four distinct approaches for immediate and long-term demand reduction – education, green energy development, energy efficiency and demand response. Smart Energy offers the following set of programs that provide energy management assistance:

• Power Watch: An energy education and call to action program.
• Green Choices: An incentive program that promotes the installation of customer-based renewable energy resources.
• Prime Time Power: A direct load control program targeting remote shutoffs of central air conditioners during summer peak periods in exchange for a monthly incentive.
• Equipment Rebates: A program that helps residential and business customers install various energy efficiency measures including air conditioners, heat pumps, lighting, and appliances.
• New Construction Rebates: A rebate available for anyone building a new home according to ENERGY STAR® specifications.
• Energy Audits: An energy audit to help residential and business customers understand their current levels of efficiency and how they can improve it.
• Custom Rebates: A rebate for any change resulting in the saving of electric energy and reducing electric demand.

The City of Ames has tapped into increased customer interest in energy conservation and the connection between energy efficiency and demand response. The goal of the utility is to inform, educate, and help citizens develop good energy habits aimed at conserving energy at a time that is most appropriate and advantageous to the utility system, particularly during peak periods. The City has received this award because of their visionary approach to developing and implementing an integrated approach to energy efficiency and demand response programs.

Outstanding Outreach Award: Baltimore Gas and Electric Company

for its outstanding outreach efforts in connection with the PeakRewardsSM program. The program engages BGE residential customer to be part of a solution to: strengthen electric system reliability, keep wholesale energy and capacity prices lower than they otherwise would be, reduce the need for new power plants and T&D infrastructure. Through direct load control of air conditioners, PeakRewards reduces energy demand during peak periods throughout the summer. It also gives customers tools for management their electric bill. PeakRewards launched in May 2008 and, as of December 2008, over 60,000 customers have enrolled in the program. BGE expects to complete its enrollment process at participation levels that far exceed the above-referenced number of customers. Participating customers are offered a choice of having a Smart Switch installed on their central air conditioner units or a Smart Thermostat that allows for automated temperature control. In 2009, BGE plans to launch enhancements to this program which will include the addition of a residential water heater program (targeting about 45 MW of peak load reduction during the summer and about 170 MW of peak load reduction during the winter), a pool pump pilot, and a substation feeder pilot. Customers are paid significant incentives for their participation in the program (up to $200 in the first year of participation). BGE has instituted an innovative enrollment process that offers customers a variety of choices to participate in the program including: signing up via the web, via the PeakRewards hotline, through business reply cards in direct mail pieces, and by completing enrollment cards at community events. It is clear that these approaches have led to a significant level of program participation as BGE embarks on the 2009 DR season.

Outstanding Sustainable Program Award: Interstate Power and Light Company

PLMA is pleased to announce that Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL) has received the Outstanding Sustainable Program Award for 2008 for its efforts in administering the Appliance Cycling program. The program targets residential customers through the IPL service territory based on a temperature trigger defined for n three zones within the IPL service territory (Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Mason City). IPL has a capability to cycle approximately between 27 to 30 MW for a full 6-hour curtailment period, which current participation levels at nearly 47,000 customers. IPL has focused on ensuring the long-term viability of this program by implementing a maintenance plan that imposes regular checks of control switches and replaces any faulty equipment. This has led to a higher level of reliability during event periods. By replacing non-functioning switches IPL is able to increase the load control potential for the program.

Outstanding Curtailment Service Provider Award: EnergyConnect

EnergyConnect Inc. has received an award for the outstanding efforts related to its FlexConnectTM program, a voluntary demand response program that pays customers for temporary load reduction when wholesale electricity prices are high. FlexConnect provides a platform for users to make informed decisions on the best times to engage in demand response. Users can choose to dig into market details and be very hands-on or let the system automatically identify load shifting opportunities for them. Access to FlexConnect is through a secure web portal giving each customer instant visibility of demand response opportunities in context with critical information about their electricity use patterns. FlexConnect offers a wide range of choices and most flexibility for customers to participate in demand response programs. FlexConnect makes it easy for customers to voluntarily engage in demand response without having to wait for an event call or an emergency. Many customers do not want to be on the hook for a mandatory curtailment and prefer to have choices of when to opt-in or opt-out. FlexConnect connects customers with more voluntary DR opportunities and any other program or platform. In 2008, over 50% of all economic DR transactions settled in the PJM service footprint were through FlexConnect.

5^th Award Winners presented April 2008

Outstanding Achievement by a Commercial End-User Award: Marriott Corporation.

The Marriott Corporation has received this award for their participation in a variety of demand response programs throughout the country. Marriott has once again proven it strong corporate commitment to energy conservation and the various local communities in which they operate by their participation in three important demand response programs:

• ISO-New England Real-Time Demand Response Program
• Southern California Edison Negawatt Network Program
• San Diego Gas & Electric Capacity Bidding Program

In all three cases, Marriott participates through a partnership with demand response aggregator EnerNoc. With a total of seven hotels enrolled in the two California DR programs, Marriott was able to provide 2,400 kW of peak capacity during times when the electric grid was under strain due to intense heat waves. During events, Marriott utilizes its on-site generators, dims zone lighting and adjusts HVAC set points as necessary. In addition, Marriott employees manually shut down parking structure lighting, guest room door lights, and kitchen and guest ice machines for the duration of the event.
Marriott expects to expand its DR program participation around the country to over 100 hotel properties across 10 states and six DR programs. Marriott's leadership and dedication have proven false the common perception that hotels are too small and diverse in load characteristics to effectively participate in demand response programs. Taken in the aggregate, hotels can and will continue to make a significant contribution to grid reliability. Marriott deserves special recognition for including DR as part of their overall corporate mission to reduce overall energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Outstanding Achievement by an Institutional End-User Award: New York University Hospitals Center

The New York University Hospitals Center has received an award for their participation in the New York ISO and Consolidated Edison DR programs. NYU Hospitals Center started participating in the NYISO's DR program through ConsumerPowerline in 2006. In 2007, NYU Hospitals Center added the ConEd DLRP Program to their DR program portfolio. The ConEd program calls for load reductions during periods when specific sub-zones in ConEd's service territory are under constraint. Since that time, they have brought on 11 buildings across the campus for a total of nearly 3 million square feet with nearly 2 MW of demand response capability. During DR events, NYU Hospitals Center operates its emergency generators which deliver the committed load for either program without any impact on the comfort of the occupants. Future plans call for increasing its shed capability to over 5 MW through reductions in air handler speeds, resetting the chilled water routines, switching from electricity to steam, and installing energy management control systems on its new chiller plant. Funds are being provided through the NYSERDA Peak Load Reduction Program to enable many of these measures to be installed and validated. NYU Hospitals Center's participation in these DR programs proves that institutional facilities are able and willing to make significant impacts toward stabilizing the New York City electric grid. This serves as an excellent example of how institutional facilities can participate in demand response programs nationwide.

Innovative Application of Residential Technology Award: Xcel Energy

PLMA is pleased to announce that Xcel Energy has received an award for its innovation in the use of technology to enhance the effectiveness of its residential Saver's Switch® demand response program. In operation for over 18 years, the program is serving nearly 435,000 residential and commercial customers providing more than 400 MW of peak load reduction on hot summer days. Xcel has maintained an average annual customer retention of 99% and much of that success can be attributed to Xcel's development of the “virtual visit” to participants' homes to identify if switches are working properly. Leveraging their AMI network, they developed a test control strategy and data set from the customer that identified switches no longer providing kW reductions. Eliminating actual site visits to identify maintenance issues has saved ratepayers millions of dollars and has enabled Xcel to bring more than 50 MW of non-performing control loads back on line over the past four years. Another outstanding aspect of Xcel's program relates to their use of the worldwide web to demonstrate how the program works. Xcel's web tool demonstrates to prospective participants how the program works. The tool was awarded ‘Best Energy Online Campaign' by the Web Marketing Association. Xcel's innovative use of technology represents how to sustain a mass market program such as direct load control so that it can be counted on as an effective demand response resource.

Innovative Application of C&I Technology Award: Pacific Gas and Electric

PG&E, in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Global Energy Partners LLC, and Akuacom, has received an award for its innovation in the use of technology to substantially improve the performance of its commercial and industrial demand response programs. The automated demand response (Auto-DR) program is an automation-based communications infrastructure that provides DR program participants with electronic, Internet-based price and reliability signals that are linked to facility energy management control systems or related building and automation process control systems. Drawing on successful pilot efforts conducted in previous years, the PG&E team was able to recruit and enable a total of 20 large commercial, industrial and institutional customers representing 82 utility service accounts with Auto-DR systems. Over the course of the summer of 2007 when DR events were called by PG&E, Auto-DR participants were able to shed their loads according to the pre-specified plans set up during the period of enablement. Customers were notified of pending events and would always have the capability and knowledge to override the automation system and opt-out of specific DR events if their conditions did not warrant participating. By linking existing advanced control technologies with the Internet, PG&E was able to systematically establish automated load control from PG&E's load dispatch center all the way to the customer end-use loads. This is a breakthrough in the DR industry and could lead to substantial DR program performance if adopted on a more wide-scale basis. Particularly impressive about the Auto-DR effort was the fact that automation tended to improve the effectiveness of DR program performance. The average load shed during the 2007 DR season for automated CPP customers was 8% while the average shed for a sample of comparable non-automated CPP customers was a negative 1%. PG&E believes that similar patterns will emerge in 2008 when they compare automated demand bidding (DBP) customers to non-automated DBP customers.

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: Energy Curtailment Specialists

Energy Curtailment Specialists, Inc. (ECS) has received the Outstanding Program Achievement Award for 2007 for its efforts in administering the Operation Save New York program, designed to assist the New York state wholesale power grid when electric load demands are forecast to exceed the available supply. When the New York ISO declares a DR emergency, Operation Save New York has the capability to deliver nearly 700 MWs of load reduction. Particularly noteworthy was ECS' emphasis on “pure” load curtailment, which is accomplished when customers reduce their energy consumption without the use of backup generation. ECS targeted industrial customers for participation in the program, given their outstanding performance capability. ECS' customer portfolio also includes smaller entities that are capable of reducing less than 200 kW to customers that have reduction targets in the 200-500 kW range. ECS stresses involving the customer at every phase of their participation in the program. For example, ECS works with the customer during the time of enrollment to conduct a detailed audit that identifies load reducing opportunities. Once the customer is recruited and enabled for participating in DR events, ECS continually monitors and updates the customer as to the likelihood that they may be called upon during NYISO events. These steps have led to a high customer satisfaction and a remarkable 99% renewal rate for participation in the program.

Outstanding Outreach Award: Southern California Edison

Southern California Edison has received an award for outstanding outreach efforts in connection with its 2007 Summer Discount Plan Program. Following one of the hottest summers on record in 2006, SCE embarked on an ambitious effort to double the enrollment of its 20-year old Summer Discount Plan Program in time for the summer of 2007. During the planning process for the 2007 program, SCE recognized that a significant re-thinking of the program design would be necessary to ramp up to the intended implementation goals in such a short period of time. The following techniques were employed:

• SCE began communicating to its 3.9 million residential customers early in the season (February and March) rather than the typical April and May timeframes.
• They went beyond traditional direct mail and reached a wider range of customers through the company website, email messages, and community events.
• Multiple channels were offered for enrollment including phone and online applications. The company offered region-specific marketing themes allowing for recruitment via several different message themes and incentives. SCE employees were deployed as marketing channels to recruit and sign up their friends and neighbors to the program.
• Customers were informed of the program intricacies and the technology details.
• Processing of applications was streamlined through the simplification of application forms.
• SCE notified customers, via the company website, of cycling events in progress.

These efforts paid off as SCE was able to bring on an additional 140,000 customers by December 2007 for a total load reduction potential of 225 MW. SCE efforts serve as a model for how a large utility can rapidly implement a demand response program and be able to achieve its goals.

4^th Award Winners presented April 2007

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: Commonwealth Edison for developing a suite of demand response programs and pioneered many of the DR efforts we now take for granted.

Photo: From the left, Steve Rosenstock, EEI presents the award to Sharon Hillman and Jim Eber of Commonwealth Edison

Outstanding End-User Achievement Award: PathMark Stores, Inc for their outstanding efforts in aggregating demand response in over 70 of their supermarkets and achieving a demand reduction of 177% of their targeted demand.

Award accepted by: Marshall Chapin of EnerNOC

Outstanding Achievement by an End-User Award: CB Richard Ellis for overcoming the barriers inherent with rental property participation in demand response programs.

Photo: Marshall Chapin of EnerNOC (left) accepts the award on behalf of Pathmark Stores and Humphrey Wong of ConsumerPowerline (right) accepts the award on behalf of CB Richard Ellis Real Estate

Outstanding Curtailment Service Provider Achievement Award: EnerNOC for their success in delivering demand response results to the New England market.

Photo: Peter Morante (left) presents the award to Marshall Chapin of EnerNOC

Innovative Application of Technology Award: Long Island Power Authority, LIPAEdge, for pioneering the use of two-way communication thermostat technologies.

Innovative Program Design Award: Portland General Electric's Dispatchable Standby Generation for its uniqueness in utilizing customer owned generation through paralleling switchgear to maximize generation output and cost effectiveness.

Photo: Steve Rosenstock of EEI (left) presents the award to Bruce Barney of PGE

3^rd Award Winners presented April 2006

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: Korea Electric Power Corporation

Outstanding End-User Achievement Award: Massachusetts Department of Capital Asset Management/DR Winter Supplemental Program

Outstanding Outreach Award: NYSERDA/Peak Load Reduction Program

Innovative Program Design Award: PG&E/Business Energy Coalition Program

2^nd Award Winners presented April 2005

Innovative Application of Technology Award: City of Ashland/BPA Power Shift Program and Southern California Edison/Energy Orb

Innovative Program Design Award: Rappahannok Electric Cooperative and New York ISO/Demand Response Program

1^st Award Winners presented April 2004

Outstanding Program Achievement Award: MidAmerican Energy/Interruptible Load Program

Outstanding Research Award: California IOUs/Electricity Pricing Research Project

Outstanding End-User Achievement Award: Dollar Tree Stores

International Cooperation Award: Progress Energy Florida

Outstanding Individual Contribution Award: Alison Silverstein, FERC

Award Winner presented October 2002

2002 Performance Recognition Award to New York Power Authority in the government entity category for large publicly-owned utilities. In the summer of 2002 NYPA activated the demand reduction program 12 times. PLM participating customers reduced their electricity use by a total of more than 50,000 kilowatts, which is about equal to the output of a small power plant. NYPA customers participating in the program receive $40 for each kilowatt of electricity they commit to save when called on during the high-demand months, from June through September. The Power Authority may make such requests for up to 15 weekdays during those months, with the standard duration of the reductions lasting up to six hours (12 noon-6 p.m.). Participants achieve the power cutbacks through various measures, including turning off or dimming non-essential lighting, adjusting air-conditioning settings, and using their own on-site generators. Among the NYPA customers participating are the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the City and State Universities of New York, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. NYPA's PLM program is part of a larger effort under New York State government's direction known as the Coordinated Electricity Demand Reduction Initiative, or CEDRI, that has resulted in substantial cutbacks in power use this summer. In addition to NYPA, it involves the New York Independent System Operator, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Long Island Power Authority, and the New York State Public Service Commission.

Award Winner presented 2001

Cinergy's PowerShare™ was awarded the “Demand Response Program Award for 2001” in the category of Investor-Owned Utility, from the Peak Load Management Alliance at its fall conference in Washington, D.C. There were 23 nominations submitted for awards by Cinergy's peer companies.