NEW YORK CITY --
Andrew Greenfield checks his home’s solar power output against
consumption through his computer and mobile phone dozens of times each
day. The International Business Machines Corp. storage engineer enjoys
trying to match the power he consumes to heat his pool in Arizona with
what he produces during the day from the panels on his roof.
Greenfield has paid nothing for power from
his local utility since the system was installed by SolarCity Corp. a
year ago. At parties and family gatherings he proudly shares his savings
data with anyone who’s interested.
He’s your utility’s worst nightmare, and there are now
hundreds of thousands of homeowners and small businesses like him as
Silicon Valley entrepreneurs transform monthly ratepayers into smart
consumers. “I travel a lot, and don’t always remember to turn off
my AC or the pool heater,” Greenfield said. “Now I can just do it on my
cellphone.”
The same rooftop solar providers
that are threatening utility revenues are more than just occupying
customer roofs. They’re inside the home, monitoring usage trends and
adapting the systems to meet both homeowners’ needs and their own bottom
lines.
Data Collectors
SolarCity, Sunrun Inc., SunPower Corp. and Locus Energy LLC
are amassing billions of points of data in smart home systems that
consumers love and that baffle utilities, many of which have no
incentive to help consumers manage their power usage more efficiently.
A Nov. 21 Harris Interactive poll of 2,022 U.S. adults
commissioned by Sunrun found that 74 percent have an interest in using
technology in their home to track personal data and use energy more efficiently.
“I’ve had solar on my roof for five years, but my utility still doesn’t even know when my power goes out,” said Julia Hamm, president of the Solar Electric Power Association,
a Washington-based industry group of utility members. “The information
is there, but they aren’t using it. This is something that utilities
need to adapt to.”
Government Prod
The lack of visibility into homes shows how utilities
have consigned themselves to one-way relationships with ratepayers in
their monopoly service areas. Their efforts to develop smart grids have
largely failed to energize consumers despite a $4.5 billion government
stimulus package in 2009.
While utilities have installed millions of smart
meters in homes, they haven’t made use of the data to engage consumers
the same way solar providers have, said Neil Strother, a smart-grid analyst at Navigant Consulting Inc.
“Utilities are more focused on cutting their own costs
than in helping consumers become more efficient,” he said. “They aren’t
motivated to reduce demand.” The U.S. Department of Energy is
more confident that its cash will start to shift the way utilities work
with data, said Patricia Hoffman, assistant secretary of electricity
delivery and energy reliability. The money went to help fund 15.7 million smart meters as well as more than 1,000 sensors on the electric grid.
‘Will Learn’
“Utilities will learn to use this information,”
Hoffman said in a Nov. 27 interview. “It enables demand management,
better integrates clean energy and optimizes the grid.” The solar systems,
meanwhile, collect real-time data on hundreds of thousands of homes and
businesses across the country that utilities could use to more
efficiently and reliably manage theirpower grids.
“We have an algorithm that tracks the clouds designed
by a Ph.D. from Stanford,” said Adrian De Luca, vice president in charge
of sales at Hoboken, New Jersey-based Locus Energy, which monitors more than 25,000 solar systems in the U.S. and Canada.
Desirable Data
“We can tell from across the country whether
performance isn’t up to specifications for whatever reasons,” De Luca
said. “The utilities should want this data.” SolarCity, which monitors about 50,000 solar systems, is working to share its data with California’s grid operator and utilities, said Chief Operating Officer Peter Rive.
“We’re deploying smart meters from day one of
installation and run simulations to determine the most efficient ways to
reduce the customer’s bill,” Rive said. “We’re eager to share this
information.”
Nat Kreamer, chief executive officer of Clean Power Finance
Inc., said some utilities don’t see the potential benefits of using
smart meters to engage with consumers to improve their service or reduce
their utility bills.
“I asked an executive at one top 10 utility what he
was hoping to get from smart meters, and he basically said just to
eliminate the meter readers,” Kraemer said. “They left a bunch of value
on the table.”
Copyright 2013 Bloomberg
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/12/spying-solar-systems-help-cut-electricity-use
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