Director, Strategic Technology Services Vermont Energy ... · Director, Strategic Technology Services Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Efficiency Vermont April 2014. About VEIC

ACEEE MT 2014Evaluating the Impact of Smart Grid on Efficiency Programs

Andy VotaDirector, Strategic Technology ServicesVermont Energy Investment Corporation, Efficiency Vermont

April 2014

About VEIC

• Private, nonprofit corporation founded in 1986

• Provides energy efficiency and renewable energy consulting and implementation services

• 300+ employees

• Locations: VT, DC, NJ, OH

Major Initiatives

Public PurposeEnergy Services Company

My Perspective @VEIC

• Support efficiency program implementation

• Lead team that develops and integrates software and analytical tools

• Major component of current work is on managing and utilizing AMI data to provide increased customer value and new and expanded efficiency opportunities

Significance of Smart Grid

• New efficiency opportunities• Demand response• Program EM&V• Customer engagement

Efficiency Opportunities

• Finer resolution AMI data gives us opportunity for better insights and deeper analysis• Examples: weekday vs. weekend use, 24 hour usage

patterns, loadshapes, heating and cooling loads • individual projects• more broadly by region, market segment

• What’s meaningful to implementers and customers is not the same

Interval Data Visualizations

Program EM&V, Planning

• Shorter feedback loops• More opportunities for analysis• Modeling and forecasting, program planning• Automated testing for expected results on projects

Demand Response

• Grid connected devices• Two way communication• Direct load control• Smarter appliances, systems for ongoing efficient

operation

Customer Engagement

• Insights, personalization• Empower and motivate• Demonstrating value from something opaque in a

clear and understandable way• Moving beyond traditional energy silos• Privacy• Information Security

Now, In Context

• Energy Efficiency Utility serving residential, commercial, small and medium businesses across Vermont

• Work across distribution utility territories

• Vermont has about 625k residents, about 350k utility accounts

• AMI meters deployed to 90%+ of electric customers• Focused on delivering services and value to ratepayers

Key questions on my mind

• What are the new efficiency opportunities available with this data?

• How do we turn data into insights and insights into real value for the ratepayers we serve?

• How do we communicate and demonstrate that value?

• How do we operationalize new tools in existing business processes?

• What can we do now that we couldn’t do before AMI and other data?

• What can others do now that they couldn’t do before?

Efficiency Vermont – where we’re going

• Data• More than just AMI – SG is how we refer to it, but it’s

about a broad and holistic view of data• Automating nightly data transfer• Building data platform • Bringing in additional data sources

• Analytics• R, Mathematica, Tableau• Business intelligence tool• Segmentation, predictive analysis• Operationalization

Efficiency Vermont – Where we’re going• Customer Engagement

• Home energy reports – 100k households• Portal• Customer service tools, reports• Behavioral demand response program in partnership

with Green Mountain Power• Anonymized , aggregated data sharing on website• Your energy data on a graph doesn’t cut it

Data Platform

• Nearly statewide energy usage data – AMI and monthly

• Unique position for Efficiency Vermont

• Third party data sources

• Program participation data

• Business intelligence tool

Data from many sources, old & new• AMI meters• Expanded sub-metering on commercial and

industrial projects• Connected devices like smart thermostats• Going deeper with existing customer data – program

participation, segmentation• Third party data sources

• Weather, demographic, parcel/building, public energy usage data

• Building benchmarking

Operations

• Marketing• Engineering• Program design and implementation• Regulatory, Policy, EM&V• New tools, new skills, eventually new roles• Data and analytics moving from supporting to

primary roles• Challenge: operationalization is key

Challenges

• Privacy and Security• New policies and approaches• Top to bottom review• About protecting people• Move from awareness, to understanding, to fully integrating into culture

• Consumer perspective• Deepening concerns over privacy; mismatch between expectations and

privacy concerns• For some: confusion about what smart grid is, whether it’s good or bad• For others: higher expectations for results – what did VT get for a $159M

spend?• More data, but the key challenge of providing meaning and value is the

same

Takeaways

• Think broadly about data and opportunities• Energy/AMI data is a key part, but it’s not the only

part• New opportunities, new risks• Landscape is changing

• Mass market behavioral, remote audits, connected devices, advanced analytics

• A fundamental shift?• Integrating services, data, tools, still a fundamental role

for EEU/Programs

Thanks

www.veic.orgefficiencyvermont.com

Andy Votaavota@veic.org(802) 540-7883