Electron is excited to announce that our flexibility market platform, ElectronConnect, has been selected by Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) as a prototype of a local marketplace in Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) a public, not-for-profit agency that provides clean electricity for 270,000 residential and business customers across 13 Silicon Valley communities and is at the forefront of the clean energy transition. Their mission is to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by providing carbon free, affordable, and reliable electricity and innovative programs for the SVCE community. Electron, through its ElectronConnect platform, will design a prototype that will enable SVCE to explore how it can interact with customers and distributed energy resources (DERs) to unlock the cost, carbon and operating efficiency savings for their customers and the broader SVCE community.

Clean energy and reliable energy are not contradictory goals

California’s approach to creating local flexibility markets came under enhanced scrutiny since the state suffered rolling blackouts in August 2020. The blackouts cut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers, for hours at a time, for the first time in 19 years.

CAISO and two state energy agencies were explicit that “renewable energy did not cause the rotating outages”, but this triggered a state-wide re-examination of how energy supply and reserve markets should function in a system with over 40% generation derived from wind and solar already and 100% renewable targets.

The Root Cause Analysis Report

The final report on California’s August blackouts found that grid operators and utilities in California need “to be better prepared for extreme climate change-induced weather events and other operational challenges facing our evolving power system” and less reliant on back-up capacity from neighbouring states.

One way to do this, the authors note, is to “accelerate the deployment and integration of demand side resources.” Better engaging with demand side resources for flexibility can provide a substantial benefit to the California grid and all grids transitioning to net zero.

We clearly need to do more

California, like many regions, already has programs in place to allow demand side resources to provide services to the CAISO wholesale electricity market. Unfortunately, these legacy solutions are often rigid, exclusive, and insufficiently targeted to meet the needs of a more complex and dynamic future.

The problem is not that demand response isn’t up to the task of providing reliable, zero carbon grid stabilising services. Indeed, local demand response companies, including Leap and OhmConnect, indicated their ability to deliver almost 4GW of load reduction in the days following the blackouts even though much of this response was voluntary and unpaid. The problem is that a more nimble and local way to engage and incentivise demand side resources is needed.

ElectronConnect

Electron’s solution offers a new approach to creating local flexibility markets. Our platform allows utilities and grid operators to create new local price signals, that co-exist with market schemes, and enhance local incentives to engage DERs. It enables utilities to deploy active market price signals rapidly, at the time and place they need it, and DERs to be compensated for the value they provide.

ElectronConnect works with many different types of DERs and customers, ensuring a robust and inclusive resource. It supports DSO models of the future as well as the type of multi-market coordination that will soon be required by regulations like FERC 2222. For market participants, it offers a streamlined way to find and join new markets. Customers and aggregators can access new revenue streams, helping to reduce costs and encourage more customer participation. As more DERs are installed and participate in local markets, a persistent and reliable resource is created for communities, utilities, and the grid.

Project ResponDER

We are excited to announce the launch of Project ResponDER, our first project in California with SVCE.

Electron was selected in a competitive process through SVCE’s Innovation Onramp program. The ElectronConnect platform will be used to develop a prototype of a local marketplace that would allow SVCE to procure flexibility from their customers with DERs, such as battery storage and smart thermostats.

“Achieving a reliable and carbon-free grid requires new technologies, policies and partnerships,” Girish Balachandran, SVCE CEO, said in a statement. Balachandran noted that local market solutions “are essential to enabling the transition to a reliable, affordable and clean, electric future.”

SVCE is focused on driving innovation to fight climate change locally and we are thrilled to join them in this mission.

See other projects included in SVCE’s Innovation Onramp here