Newport Beach-based Enersponse, a distributed energy resource management provider, is teaming up with Samsung’s home monitoring system SmartThings to help consumers save on energy costs.
The partnership will provide users with access to a portfolio of utility integrations and grid service programs via SmartThings Energy, a service for connected devices within the SmartThings app.
SmartThings users will be able to connect their utility account with Enersponse and automate their smart home devices, including thermostats, hot water heaters and EV chargers. They will be able to cut back on energy usage in response to real-time factors such as grid emergencies, extreme weather, system outages and energy pricing fluctuations, according to the company.
“We’re taking real-time pricing and market conditions at the electric grid level and we’re converting those into messages to enact behavioral or technology changes at a residential level,” Enersponse founder and Chief Executive James McPhail told the Business Journal on Jan. 20.
B2B
The partnership with SmartThings Energy extends Enersponse’s availability beyond its current business-to-business market footprint—which has been heavily focused on national retailers, office buildings, grocery stores, water districts and multifamily residential buildings—and into the business-to-consumer residential market.
Enersponse is focused on helping customers save money and meet environmental sustainability objectives by optimizing their energy usage, with the added benefit of helping power suppliers support grid stabilization and reduce reliance on fossil fuel-powered plants.
Residential Push
McPhail provides this illustrative sequence:
• Customers preset their devices or appliances to react when an energy alert arrives.
• Enersponse sends the signal to the SmartThings app.
• Alert arrives and the app adjusts the thermostat by 2 degrees, as one example.
Another example: the system could adjust the temperature on a home water heater by a few degrees.
A few scenarios outlined by McPhail: “It also just drives behavioral—hey, maybe don’t do the dishes until after 6 p.m. or maybe don’t use the washer-dryer. Don’t do the laundry until 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.”
The tool can even be set to turn off appliances, McPhail said.
“We aren’t paid by SmartThings,” the CEO said. “We’re not paid by the residential consumer. We’re paid by the utilities or the grid system operators for bringing these large portfolios of load to market.
“The way we make money is we bring these large portfolio loads into these programs and bid them into the market.”
OC Dozen
McPhail says the company has “about a dozen” employees in Orange County with 26 nationwide.
Reducing the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels is one of the company’s main goals.
“The reason that these things are being triggered is so that peaking power plants don’t have to be fired up.”
That’s especially so with coal plants that “are very dirty, so there’s a huge carbon footprint element that’s just driving down thousands and thousands of pounds of greenhouse gas every year,” according to the CEO.
“Right now, we have over 10,000 connected commercial sites. But this really puts us on the map for residential,” McPhail said. “It’s a big market expansion.”
That makes Enersponse’s technology accessible to residential dwellings with smart-home enabled devices.
Historically, utilities issue flex alerts and expect end-users to manually power down if they want to save money.
The company says its intelligent automation platform allows users to program their response and take control of their power bill.
Participating in Enersponse’s energy programs is risk-free. Customers never pay a dime; but instead have plentiful opportunities to save on their electric bill and qualify for cash rebate rewards, according to the company.
