Dave Hyland, of Schneider Electric, educates us about what demand response is and how his company is helping utilities and businesses take advantage of new demand response opportunities.

Full Transcription:

Ben Lack: I’m with Dave Hyland of Schneider Electric. Thanks for being with us.
Dave Hyland: No problem.
Ben Lack: One of the cool things that you guys have that I want to talk about today is the types of solutions that you have for demand-response. Could you give us a high level type of version of what is demand-response and what types of problems are accumulating in demand-response and how are you tackling those?
Dave Hyland: Well, in the past, demand-response only really pertains to the larger industrial customer that responded to ISO programs. Those programs are going on today through those ISO’s. But, nowadays, the residential consumer can participate in those through the utility. The smaller, commercial, industrial customers can also participate. What Schneider has done is we have a building practices group. We have a solutions group. We also have industry groups, which could take care of those different sectors of demand-response. And, we’re just now coming out with a residential solution, so the residential customers can participate in demand-response programs through the utility programs.
Ben Lack: Talk to us a little bit about the history of demand-response. As buildings are obviously getting smarter, buildings can become more of a part of what it overall is. But what is really demand-response and what role do they have right now?
Dave Hyland: Yes. Demand-response for buildings is actually the ability to shift load or curtail load at certain periods of time when there is reliability issues or supply issues in the grid. What happens is, is what the more intelligent systems now in buildings, customers or building owners are able to curtail use or curtail use for small amounts of time, or shift that usage to later times when the energy is less expensive, or when the reliability isn’t a factor. With the intelligence of buildings, Schneider can go out and interface with those intelligence systems and actually improve the reliability of the grid.
Ben Lack: Give us a little more detail of how Schneider is actually doing this.
Dave Hyland: Well, we’re doing that through our Building Solutions group. We’re doing that through our Building Automation group. The thought is to take software and actually be able to aggregate those loads as needed by utilities, and so they can go to those loads and put those into the ISO program.
Ben Lack: Is the value really that customers that own buildings in the commercial and industrial sector that they can save money, as well? Or, are there also ways to make money from this?
Dave Hyland: Well, you’re absolutely right about that. There’s ways. There are three things that are features of these programs. First of all, customers can save money by not using energy during high peak, high cost times. They can be green for the environment. And, they can also save themselves some additional cost down the road.
Ben Lack: Okay. When someone is trying to figure out when is the right timing, is this the type of thing that utilities are messaging these types of companies and saying, “Hey, we needed to shut off at this time, and this is what the Schneider Electric solution is offering.”
Dave Hyland: Absolutely right. It’s the ability for the utilities or the ISOs to communicate with the building owners, the industrial customers, the utilities that have access to the residential consumer, so those residential consumers and commercial, industrial consumers can actually respond to the market and to the grid reliability.
Ben Lack: Is there ever an instance where customers actually get paid for participating in demand-response programs?
Dave Hyland: Absolutely. Most of the ISOs now have programs where they can get paid to curtail, and some of those are very lucrative. For example, last year, PJM paid out over five hundred million dollars in payments for demand-response. It’s very lucrative for people to be able to shift their production or curtail production if they can do it.
Ben Lack: I can imagine that typically the folks who are participating are going to be in medium size, large buildings because they are handling the larger loads. Would this also apply for small businesses?
Dave Hyland: All up and down the line. It can be any size of customers. The nice thing about this is everybody can contribute. Everybody can be green. And everybody can benefit.
Ben Lack: So, I’m a business owner or I’m a building owner and I don’t necessarily know how to get connected to demand-response programs, how does somebody like me find out ways to get connected?
Dave Hyland: Well, a good way to get connected is to contact your local utility, contact your ISO, or even attend events such as DistribuTECH.
Ben Lack: Okay. Personally, I’m curious about why this industry is fascinating to you and why you’re ultimately doing what you’re doing?
Dave Hyland: Well, there are problems that are on the foreseeable future with great infrastructure that’s actually getting old and needs to be replaced, and it’s the right thing to do as far as being able to be green and control carbon emissions and be able to reduce the pollution that we have in the world right now.
Ben Lack: Dave, thanks so much for the time, I appreciate you being with us.
Dave Hyland: Thank you. I appreciate it.

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