Alectra’s GridExchange platform, which incentivizes customers to exchange clean energy with their utility, demonstrates that customers are ready to become active participants in the clean energy future.
Energy consumers are increasingly adopting distributed energy resources (DERs) – such as rooftop solar panels, battery storage, and electric vehicles (EVs) – which enable them to produce enough energy to power their homes, help optimize their energy consumption, and transition from being consumers of energy to becoming prosumers (both a consumer as well as a producer) of energy.
This shift has the potential to increase the amount of clean energy produced in our communities thereby reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, lowering energy bills, and increasing grid flexibility and resilience.
For utilities, customer DERs represent an opportunity to leverage local flexible power to reduce peak demand as well as provide energy services that may enable them to defer capital investment in infrastructure. The challenge is in ensuring flexible contracting, secure transactions, and speedy settlements for many small customer DERs in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Click here to read Alectra's feature cover story in the winter issue of The Distributor.