During Record Summer Heat, Comverge Saves 32 Gigawatt Hours of U.S. Energy

The summer of 2012 will go down in history as the third-warmest summer ever for the continental United States—and July was the hottest month on record in America—according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. Thus, it was no small feat for Norcross, Georgia-based Comverge, Inc., a provider of intelligent energy management solutions, to save its U.S. customers 32 gigawatt hours (gWh) of electricity from June through September.

In fact, when combined with the company’s overseas savings for a total of 35 gigawatts, Comverge achieved the equivalent of taking more than 36,000 homes off the grid for one month. This doubles the 16 gigawatt hours of energy reduction Comverge delivered during the 2011 “cooling season,” when customer air conditioners were continually busy. Comverge executed more than 235 events—providing rapid response to changing energy loads— during the summer of 2012, compared to 199 events during all of 2011.

Comverge delivers a comprehensive suite of intelligent energy management solutions that enable utilities, grid operators, and commercial and industrial organizations—as well as residential customers—to optimize their energy usage in order to reduce costs, meet regulatory requirements, and support sustainability initiatives.

An end-to-end intelligent energy solution delivers:

• Two-way, real-time communication between utilities and customers
• Better energy control
• Insights into problem areas that require maintenance
• More predictable energy loads
• Rapid and flexible responses to changing conditions
• Automated energy management
• Faster, easier service changes
• Improved management across the grid

To deliver reliable load reduction, Comverge provides a suite of intelligent energy management solutions that optimize the deployment and execution of demand response programs such as direct load control and dynamic pricing.

Outside of North America, Comverge has delivered over the past two months more than 3 gWh of energy reduction for Eskom, the largest electricity provider in Africa. With a recent reduction in supply reserve margin due to unit maintenance, the Demand Response Rewards program has played an increasingly critical role in helping Eskom to maintain grid reliability.

“Comverge’s record performance during the summer cooling season and in South Africa is symbolic of the growth we have seen across both our residential and commercial businesses,” said R. Blake Young, president and CEO. “Thirty-five gigawatt hours of reduced electricity demand is a significant amount and that level of curtailment can only be achieved through deployment of large scale programs across residential and commercial and industrial programs that are enabled through proven and comprehensive technologies.”

Young added, “The role that Comverge continues to play in helping to maintain grid reliability is something we take very seriously and, as our business continues to grow, Comverge will play a larger role in mitigating the risks presented by periods of extreme demand.”

The “always on” nature of the Comverge Network Operations Center enables Comverge to quickly, reliably and cost-effectively manage thousands of data transactions without any interruptions in service. Central to managing these events is the Comverge IntelliSOURCE Demand Response Management System (DRMS), which enables utilities to easily manage and execute complex, high-volume control events.

Among Comverge’s partners are Digi International (News - Alert), Elster, Itron, Sensus, Silver Spring Networks, and White-Rodgers.