Electric Co-op Today

The member systems of a Virginia G&T will soon enable their commercial and industrial accounts to manage fluctuations in wholesale supply costs, lower energy bills and even earn money through a new pilot program.

Old Dominion Electric Co-op will offer the VirtuWatt online energy management platform to member co-ops through a pilot program. (Photo By: Constellation Energy)

Next year, Old Dominion Electric Co-op, Glen Allen, will launch the Cooperative Economic Load Response Program, a three-year program that will use smart grid technology designed by Constellation Energy.

The G&T’s 11 members will use the investor-owned utility’s VirtuWatt technology, an online energy management application.

Businesses eligible for the program will have direct access to PJM Interconnection, which oversees the grid in 13 states and the District of Columbia, through VirtuWatt on their desktops or mobile devices.

To participate, businesses must have loads greater than 300 kilowatts. Businesses might include lumber companies, poultry farms or big-box retailers, an ODEC official said.

“It’s a whole new idea,” said Rick Alston, the G&T’s manager of member services and demand response planning. Businesses will be able to monitor usage “any time during the day, hour-by-hour. They will start to think in a short-term manner as opposed to waiting until the end of the month.”

Load response activities include cycling off heating and cooling systems, stopping or slowing down production lines, or shutting off lights. Nine distribution co-ops located in Virginia and two co-ops located in Maryland and Delaware have the option of offering the program.

Eligible businesses will first consult with ODEC to identify moments of peak power usage, “so they can make an informed decision to curtail consumption during those periods and ultimately save on demand charges,” Alston said.

To encourage customers to reduce their loads, the program will offer incentive payments. Amounts will depend on the difference between prices in the PJM wholesale market and the generation and transmission portions of customers’ bills. And the payments could be even greater, Alston said, under a proposed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rule.

Some of that generation could come from a new landfill gas-to-energy plant under a long-term agreement that ODEC signed with Richmond Energy LLC. The 6.4-megawatt facility is expected to begin operation later this year.

Tags: Demand-Side Management, Energy Conservation, Load Management, Smart Grid