Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) Lower Building Energy Costs

As new rooftop solar, battery storage, and EV systems evolved, the technology to aggregate their extra energy capacity behind the meter (BTM) and distribute it back to the power grid has arrived. It’s called Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) and it offers utilities the opportunity to meet bulk power sector needs by utilizing their smaller customers who have extra energy reserves to transfer back to the electrical distribution grid.

Until now, getting from the grid of the past with demand response load reductions to the multi-resource network of today was no easy task. It required not just managing the impacts of countless new resources on utility distribution systems but designing the software products and market models to allow the new aggregations to meet grid needs and the monitoring systems required by FERC between utility companies, grid operators and DER providers.

The Many Benefits of a Smart Energy Savings System (SESS)

Now that the energy regulations are completed and in place at CAISO’s large investor owned utilities like SCE, PG&E, SDG&E, regulated by CPUC, the private energy aggregators are integrating into California’s energy markets and offer commercial properties and industrial facilities substantial energy cost savings.

More precisely, their buildings can benefit as a DER if managed effectively by a Smart Energy Saving Systems (SESS) that lowers their energy usage and in turn reduces their operating costs. A SESS can manage and regulate energy usage by purchasing it at the lowest peak usage rates and releasing it when energy demand is at its highest. They also prevent energy spikes and excessive energy demand by modulating and flattening energy usage for peak performance. As more loads and generating resources are connected through DER’s, power usage will decrease, outages will cease, and the SESS industry will graduate to a full-fledge grid resource.

The Multi-Resource Network of Today vs. Yesterday’s Demand Response Load Reductions

This fall 2019, a mix of energy storage aggregators like MicroNOC Inc. and utility-run programs such as SGIP are bringing a wide range of resources together to FM’s to reduce peak load, take stress off the system and slash utility costs. The CPUC's Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) provides incentives to support existing, new, and emerging Distributed Energy Resources and provides rebates for qualifying DERs installed on the customer's side of the utility meter.

SESS providers like MicroNOC collaborate and partner with their clients for the most effective and profitable energy saving systems. MicroNOC designs, installs, operates, and maintains and manages theirs by using Aggregated Energy Resource Solutions ™ (AECS) and Qualified Balance Resource ™ (QBR) systems. These systems balance a building’s energy rate from behind-the-meter (BTM) using the lowest rates available for energy purchase and the highest rate of return for stored energy release back to the power grid.

Building Managers Can Take Advantage of These Energy Cost Savings Now

All that’s required from MicroNOC’s energy savings partners is interior or exterior equipment space and a copy of their energy usage data and/or electrical bill. Design to installation is typically 4 months and from then on their partners share in the energy cost savings with MicroNOC who owns and operates the SESS.

Per Ting Chang, EVP at MicroNOC, their energy savings partnership program acts as a Clean Virtual Power Plant ™ and Energy Balance Engine ™. To highlight its effectiveness, their Clean Virtual Power Plant Signing Ceremony & Inauguration Event held in Rancho Cucamonga, California on October 23, 2019, helped educate the facilities management, sustainability and energy savings communities about the many benefits of their SESS program.