The Smart Home

Policy

Smart Homes to Shift Loads: A Conversation About DR and TOU Rates

• 

  Chris Baker

  Program Manager, Home Performance with ENERGY STAR
  Arizona Public Service
  Phoenix, Arizona
• RC

  Rick Counihan

  Head of Energy Regulatory and Government Affairs
  Google
• 

  Gamaliel Lodge

  Lead Developer
  OptiMiser LLC
  Denver, Colorado

As energy rates evolve, the opportunity emerges to use technology to meet the time of use rates and benefit the consumer, utilities, and contractors. This session will present the challenge, some present day solutions, and future visions to help reduce costs for utilities and consumers and take advantage of solar and renewables when they are available to improve the sustainability of our homes.

Arizona Public Service and OptiMiser will discuss their solutions to help contractors to identify the best TOU rate plan combined with small- and medium-impact in-home interventions to meet the utility’s goals (reduced peak demand) and the customers’ (lower energy bills). Attendees will also get a peak at Google’s vision for the Smart Home of the near future.

Contractors can help customers facing high TOU rates and demand charges by optimizing rate selection with targeted retrofits that reduce their bills.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a better understanding of TOU and demand-based energy pricing and how it can be deployed for residential customers
• Learn new strategies for broadening home performance programs and tackling demand issues that anyone can deploy today, including a combination of moderate envelope improvement and pre-cooling strategies
• Learn about business opportunities that may open up as the Smart Home evolves from thermostats to a wider array of control possibilities