EventConnect: Grid Dispatched Demand Response
EventConnect offers an easy way to offset energy costs, earn revenues, and improve grid stability. You get paid for standing by to help balance the power grid during peak demand. In 2009, hundreds of customers enrolled in emergency programs across the Mid-Atlantic and PJM area committed to reduce over 7,000 MW and received more than $300 million for their combined participation. In 2010 and 2011, participation increased significantly as customers committed to reduce approximately 9,000 MW and 11,800 MW respectively with total compensation exceeding $500 million in each year.
How EventConnect Works: Under some circumstances electric grid operators or utilities may ask for help from energy users to shift or temporarily reduce a portion of the facility's consumption. This may happen when there is a pending emergency or when wholesale supply costs greatly exceed what consumers are paying for electricity. This presents a unique economic opportunity. All EventConnect programs provide significant payments just for being on standby and additional payments for energy reduced during events. Organizations will still receive a standby payment even if the grid operator or utility do not call an event.
Compound your EventConnect payment with FlexConnect voluntary curtailment year round
Use the Calculator to Estimate How Much You Can Earn
Please fill in the details below. We will send you the total potential annual payments for your organization. Estimated benefits depend on several variables including your electricity consumption, local utility and other factors specific to your situation and region.
Calculate my Potential Earnings
Utility
The utility is the company that delivers your electric power. If you are served by a third party provider, please enter the name of the company listed for “distribution” on your electric bill.
Curtailment Capability
This indicates how much electric demand you can reduce or shift to periods when wholesale electricity prices are lower.
- Inflexible: You can only reduce or shift small amounts of electric load or can reduce or shift very infrequently. The cost of electricity is very small compared with the value of the product or service you provide. Your electric demand is relatively constant over a 24 hour period.
- Generally Inflexible: Your electricity demand varies somewhat over a 24 hour period. Electricity costs are important, but not as important as providing reliable service or meeting production schedules.
- Somewhat Flexible: Your electricity demand varies substantially over a 24 hour period and electricity costs are significant. With the right financial incentives, you would be willing to change production schedules or provide services in a different way when you have advanced notice and can choose when you participate.
- Flexible: You have made investments in energy control devices that make it easy to control energy use. All you need is the right financial incentive, sufficient notice, and the ability to choose when you participate. You are very sensitive to the price of electricity and can easily change production or service delivery schedules.
Energy Rate
(cents/kilowatt-hour) Obtain a recent copy of your account bill from your utility. The generation cost is usually quoted at cents/killowatt-hour. If there is a transmission charge that is also quoted as cents/killowatt-hour, add the two together and enter here. If the transmission charge is based on maximum consumption for the period, it can be disregarded. In that case use only the generation charge
Peak Demand
(kilowatts) Your energy bill will list the maximum consumption for the period. Enter that value here. If it is quoted as megawatts, multiply by 1000 and enter here. If no maximum is quoted, find the kilowatt hour energy consumption for the month, divide by 500 and enter the value here.
Reduction Capability
Reduction capability is the amount of energy load that can be reduced on the electric grid, through reducing energy consumption, starting standby generation, or a combination of both operations.
"Integrating demand response into our operations at Zanker has been seamless. Participating in EventConnect is very easy. It's a win-win for the environment and our bottom line."
- Michael Gross, Operations Manager
Learn more about Zanker Road Resource Management's storyReady to get connected?
Schedule a GridConnect Demo
Rollover your location on the map to find your ISO and the services available in your area. Click on the highlighted area for more information. Darker areas on the map are currently areas where demand response capabilities are not available. Contact EnergyConnect, Inc. for other services if you are located in these areas.
See list of ISO
locations and services.
States:
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
Services Available:
• FlexConnect
• EventConnect
• EventConnect: Standby Reserve (In pilot)
(Click region to learn more)
States:
New York
Services Available:
• FlexConnect
• EventConnect
• EventConnect: Standby Reserve (in pilot)
(Click region to learn more)
States:
DC, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
Portions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio
Services Available:
• FlexConnect
• EventConnect
• EventConnect: Standby Reserve
(Click region to learn more)
States:
Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, Wisconsin
Portions of Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming
Services Available:
MISO is currently engaged in an active ancillary service market design process that, while not explicitly using demand response to address transmission adequacy, is considering how demand response can participate in supporting system reliability.
States:
Kansas, Oklahoma
Portions of Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas
Services Available:
SPP does not itself explicitly include demand response in transmission planning studies, although it does consider generation as an alternative to transmission enhancement...
(Click region to learn more)
States:
Texas
Services Available:
ERCOT has several demand response programs targeted toward large industrial customers. Please contact us to find out more information.
California
Services Available:
• EventConnect
(Click region to learn more)
EnergyConnect, Inc. Participating ISOs & Services Available
States:
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
ISO New England is a regional transmission organization (RTO), serving Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. ISO New England meets the electricity demands of the region's economy and people by fulfilling three primary responsibilities: minute-to-minute reliable operation of New England's bulk electric power system, development, oversight and fair administration of New England's wholesale electricity marketplace, and management of comprehensive bulk electric power system and wholesale markets' planning processes that address New England's electricity needs well into the future.
Services Available:
• FlexConnect: ISONE Real Time Price Response Program
• FlexConnect: ISONE Day Ahead Load Reponse Program
• EventConnect: ISONE Demand Response Reserve Pilot Program
• EventConnect: ICAP Market
States:
New York
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) is a federally regulated, not-for-profit corporation charged with operating New York’s bulk electric transmission system, a network that spans more than 11,000 miles. The NYISO also administers the state’s wholesale electricity markets, which generated nearly $11 billion in transactions in 2005.
Services Available:
• FlexConnect: NY Day Ahead Demand Response Program
• EventConnect: Demand Side Ancillary Service Participation (In development)
• EventConnect: NY Emergency Demand Response Program (EDRP) and Special Case Resource (SCR) Program
States:
DC, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia
Portions of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio
PJM is the coordinating entity for buying, selling, and transmitting wholesale electricity for 25 million people in the Mid-Atlantic region, and has been a fully functional Independent System Operator (ISO) since January 1, 1998.
Services Available:
• FlexConnect: PJM Economic Load Response Program: Day Ahead Option
• FlexConnect: PJM Economic Load Response Program: Real Time Option
• EventConnect: PJM Synchronous Reserve Program (SR)
• EventConnect: PJM Enhanced Interruptible Load Response Program (ILR)
States:
Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota, Wisconsin
Portions of Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming
The Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) was founded on February 12, 1996 and filed for RTO status on January 16, 2000; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the proposal on December 19, 2001, making MISO the first RTO in the country. Spanning over 15 states and into Canada, MISO consists of several transmission corporations, utilities, co-ops and others. Because of the size of its territory, it has faced numerous questions concerning transmission and seam issues.
Services Available:
MISO is currently engaged in an active ancillary service market design process that, while not explicitly using demand response to address transmission adequacy, is considering how demand response can participate in supporting system reliability.
States:
Kansas, Oklahoma
Portions of Missouri, New Mexico, and Texas
SPP is a Regional Transmission Organization, mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity. SPP has 47 members across 8 Southwestern states.
Services Available:
SPP does not itself explicitly include demand response in transmission planning studies, although it does consider generation as an alternative to transmission enhancement. Individual LSEs incorporate any current or expected demand response that is within their boundaries in their load forecasts. Individual transmission owners could investigate demand response solutions as alternatives to transmission expansion projects but they are not required to do so by the region.
States:
Texas
The mission of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is to direct and ensure reliable and cost-effective operation of the electric grid and to enable fair and efficient market-driven solutions to meet customers’ electric service needs.
Services Available:
ERCOT has several demand response programs targeted toward large industrial customers. Please contact us to find out more information.
States:
California
The California ISO is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation charged with operating the majority of California’s high-voltage wholesale power grid. Balancing the demand for electricity with an equal supply of megawatts, the ISO is the impartial link between power plants and the utilities that serve more than 30 million consumers. The ISO provides equal access to the grid for all qualified users and strategically plans for the transmission needs of this vital infrastructure.
Services Available:
• Share the Power: Northern California Emergency Market Service Program
• Share the Power: Southern California Emergency Market Service Program