AutoGrid recently announced its AutoGrid Flex distributed energy resources management system (DERMS) platform has been selected to manage distributed energy resources (DERs) by NRTC for its member electric utilities.
NRTC represents more than 800 rural electric utilities in 48 states, collectively serving approximately 20 million homes and 50 million residents. It will offer Bring Your Own Things (BYOT) and DER management technology to its member utilities using the AutoGrid Flex DERMS platform.
Under the agreement, NRTC will use AutoGrid Flex to harness the value of DERs such as connected thermostats, water heaters, battery energy storage, solar photovoltaics (PV) and electric vehicles (EVs).
NRTC member utilities will use AutoGrid Flex to enroll customers and to monitor, optimize, and control DERs. Utilities will gain leading-edge capability to use DERs to harness a broad array of grid services, including demand response and load shifting, coincidental peak management, renewables integration, and other forms of artificial intelligence (AI)-based analytics and optimization capabilities. The end result for utilities and their customers will be lower costs, higher reliability, greater control, and increased use of clean energy.
"NRTC's members require technology that is reliable, cost effective, open, and scalable to meet their current and future needs," said Greg Bartolomei, president, smart grid solutions at NRTC. "We look forward to continuing our leadership in helping members provide affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy by leveraging AI capabilities in the AutoGrid Flex platform to manage an increasingly distributed and renewable powered grid."
AutoGrid Flex will be used to orchestrate devices from a variety of vendors such as Google/Google Nest, Honeywell, ecobee, Schneider Electric, Emerson, ChargePoint, sonnen, and several other popular internet of things (IoT) device brands. The BYOT capability provides electric cooperative members with a powerful and consumer-friendly demand management tool. NRTC members' residential customers will be able to employ IoT smart devices to save money on their monthly bills. In turn, NRTC member utilities will be able to harness the flexibility from these devices to lower demand charges and to cost-effectively integrate more renewable generation into their distribution systems.
"We are honored to partner with NRTC to offer cooperative utilities across the United States our advanced flexibility management technology," said Amit Narayan, founder and CEO, AutoGrid. "The transformation to a more decentralized, flexible grid must take into account every part of the country and this agreement with NRTC represents a huge swath of this needed transformation. AutoGrid's AI-powered real-time optimization and controls platform will empower NRTC member utilities with the choice and flexibility to connect and manage a wide range of grid-edge devices while participating in grid services programs to save money, to the benefit of millions of utility customers within their collective service areas."
