Direct Energy Piloting Remotely Controllable Smart Water Heaters For Demand Response, Frequency Regulation

Direct Energy is engaged in a pilot to evaluate the capabilities of remotely controllable smart electric water heaters.

The residential pilot, rolled out to friends and family of Direct Energy employees, is to include 150 deployments in Houston, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and the TVA service area of Tennessee. The smart water heaters were provided to participants for free.

Direct's pilot is unique in the marketplace, and EnergyChoiceMatters.com has not seen anything similar from a U.S. retail supplier.

Direct Energy began rolling out the pilot in Q4 of last year and will continue the pilot through this summer, Robbie Wright, Vice President of Digital and Innovation for Direct Energy, told EnergyChoiceMatters.com

Under the pilot, Direct Energy is exploring the capabilities of the smart water heaters from Sequentric Energy Systems from both a connected home and demand response perspective.

In addition to various other forms of demand response (peak shifting, etc.), the pilot is specifically examining the use of the controllable water heaters for frequency regulation with a less than half-a-second response time, including evaluation for potentially offering as ERCOT's new Fast Frequency Response Service (FFRS).

The smart water heaters are able to provide a constant supply of hot water to customers despite any remotely controlled actions.

Wright noted that Direct, with its home services business, has unique capabilities in the market to deploy solutions such as the pilot

The smart water heater pilot is among several smart energy pilots in which Direct Energy is currently engaged. Among other pilots is Direct Energy Solar's battery storage pilot, which is offered in partnership with the Maryland Energy Administration's "Game Changer" grant program announced last summer.

Under the residential solar-plus-storage pilot, Direct Energy Solar is working with twenty Maryland residents within the BGE service territory to install rooftop photovoltaic systems combined with grid-integrated battery storage systems. Through proprietary software, the systems will be aggregated in order for Direct Energy and its partners to participate in the PJM frequency regulation market.