Metering.com 13 July 2017
US utility AEP Ohio partnered with energy management firm Powerley to help its residential customers improve their energy efficiency.
Under the partnership, the utility company is providing its 1.5 million residential customers with Powerley’s home energy management solution to enable them to control the energy consumption of home appliances in real-time.
The home energy management solution includes hardware (smart thermostat, bulbs, switches and sensors) and mobile application ‘It’s Your Power’.
Residential customers of AEP Ohio can access It’s Your Power via Google Play or the Apple App Store to be able to remotely control their smart home appliances including HVAC systems. The home energy management solution will be used by AEP Ohio in deploying demand response initiatives to meet demand during peak periods and stabilise its grid supply.
In a statement, the solutions provider says it took 12 months to develop, customise, test and fully deploy its home energy management solution for customers of AEP Ohio. In the first three months of deployment of the solution, some 10,000 downloads of It’s Your Power were done by consumers of AEP Ohio.
AEP Ohio will also include Powerley’s home energy management solution in expanding deployment of its advanced metering infrastructure to have some 894,000 of its customers equipped with smart electric meters.
Commenting on the development, Manoj Kumar, CEO of Powerley, said: “Powerley is proud to partner with AEP Ohio as one of the first utilities globally to deliver the energy-driven smart home experience.
“Powerley’s solution allows utilities to ‘go beyond the meter’ to swiftly innovate the customer experience by providing consumers with a real-time window into their energy usage. Bridging the smart home to the smart grid, utilities can drive innovation, efficiency and engagement.”
Energy management solution
In early March, in a bid to reduce its energy transmission and distribution losses, AEP Ohio partnered with smart grid solutions firm Utilidata.
The utility will use Utilidata’s Volt/VAR Optimisation technology AdaptiVolt to monitor some 160 energy distribution circuits to reduce energy losses during the distribution of energy to some 119,000 customers in the company’s service territory.
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