Austin November 2019 Luncheon

“(Load) Profiles in Courage: How Technology Can Deliver Bill Savings by Co-optimizing Households’ Electric Rate Plans and Usage Profiles”

Retail competition in Texas enables households to minimize their electric bills by selecting from among hundreds of available rate plans, while generally treating households’ electricity usage profiles as fixed. But electric bills could be further minimized if households’ usage profiles could likewise be “selected” -- by adoption of load-controlling technologies in the home, for instance -- to better align periods of high electricity use with periods of low prices. To the extent that low-price periods correspond with significant renewable generation on the ERCOT grid, this would have the added benefit of decarbonizing households’ electricity use.
 
Of course, convincing households to purchase, install and connect load-controlling technologies in their homes is easier said than done. OhmConnect’s customers in California have embraced technology for the purpose of participating in the state’s market for demand response; however, they have not been able to realize the full potential benefits of their investments in technology due to the lack of retail choice and rate innovation in California. John Anderson will discuss how his company’s experience with the DR market in California might be applied to the retail market in Texas in an effort to bring the “co-optimization” of households’ electric rate plans and usage profiles closer to reality.
 

John Anderson
Director of Energy Markets, OhmConnect

John Anderson is Director of Energy Markets at OhmConnect, a San Francisco-based residential demand response provider with a fun and engaging app that incentivizes users to reduce electricity while simultaneously controlling Internet of Things (IoT) devices within their homes. He leads the company's efforts on CPUC regulatory proceedings and CAISO stakeholder initiatives to facilitate direct participation by demand response resources in California’s wholesale electricity markets. Prior to joining OhmConnect, John was Senior Market Design Analyst at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), where he worked on CAISO and FERC wholesale electric market design, analysis, and strategy. John holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Calgary, an M.Phil. in Economics from the University of Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University.