Don Whaley: “So the customers need to start shopping for value in the retail market rather than just shopping for price, because price, as we all know, is not necessarily cheapest, is not always the best, oftentimes not even the cheapest. So I think that’s something that demand response, load response, is something that’s becoming much more mainstream. And I think the more broadly that’s accepted and embraced, the more we move away from these peak crisis periods that we’re experiencing right now.”
Smith says power outages are mostly caused when the electric grid is being overused and this is typically between the hours of 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. when people are getting off work. Smith says there are ways to reduce your energy use during this time period but it takes some planning.
This type of daily action is also promoted by OhmConnect, a nationwide energy-saving company that pays people for saving energy. Chief Executive Officer of OhmConnect, Cisco DeVries, says taking advantage of these early, cooler hours is key to saving energy.
Thanks to evolving technology like smart thermostats, demand response programs can be scaled up fairly quickly for widespread residential use in places like Houston, and could allow regular Texas ratepayers to receive some of the benefits that are largely available only to businesses.
When the temperatures go up, so does your electric bill and that cost can run some families thousands of dollars a month.
We spoke with an energy expert about some low-cost, and even free, ways to lower your bills by several dollars a day without breaking a sweat.
We help our members reduce their energy use, and particularly help them reduce their energy use at these key times when the grid is very dirty, very conjested and overloaded. And we actually pay our customers for those reductions...last year we paid out over $5 million and helped our average customer save about $200.
Curt Tongue: "We tend to tell customers to do three things to save on the bills: #1 is to really participate in those grid flexibility programs...#2 is move to a time of use rate plan...#3 is just easy weatherization. Make sure your wnidows are closed, good seals on doors..."
While the hot dry summer months are still ahead, regulators, policymakers and legislatures in California are trying their best to avoid future power shortages that, God forbid, could result in outages.
A number of iPhone owners recently took to social media to complain about a change in the cellphone’s latest software update: Unless you turn the program off, a “clean energy charging” function will shift the time when your phone charges— to minimize stress on the electricity grid and reduce the planet-warming carbon emissions that come from charging during times of high demand.
In the seemingly never-ending saga of the race to brace for the next extreme weather event to impact the power grid, Texas state Senators unveiled nine bills last Thursday that would restrict renewable energy development and encourage the building of more fossil fuel-burning power plants.
Apple is getting a lot of flak for setting up iPhones to charge when the sun shines or the wind blows. The feature, called "Clean Energy Charging," incited a tiny but vehement Twitter rebellion as critics, many of them right-wing personalities, slammed it as yet another "woke" front in the culture war. Others worried they would wake up to a depleted battery if their iPhones charged mostly when the grid is cleanest.
“Utility companies will have times of day when the rate is lowest — also known as time-of-use pricing — so find out those times and be strategic about when you run your energy-intensive appliances,” said Cisco DeVries, an energy expert who was the former aide to the U.S. secretary of energy during the Clinton Administration and is now CEO of OhmConnect. “Hint: It’s often later at night. You will be doing your part to create a more resilient grid and your bill will thank you for it.”
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Cisco: "So one of the things you can do is take that thermostat down..."
According to Cisco DeVries, an energy expert and former aide to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton administration, smart thermostats can save you an average of 10 to 12 percent on heating and 15 percent on cooling, which amounts to nearly $145 per year.
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Don Whaley: "There's all those decorations that you gotta put out around the roof, around the tree, and around your yard and you add those three up and there's a significant increase in electricity consumption in the winter. The easy answer is LED."
All over the country, a changing climate and extreme weather events – whether due to high temperatures, low temperatures or storms and hurricanes – are posing a threat to grid reliability in the U.S.
The 30-year-old from Bakersfield had been hit with a seasonal $200 hike in costs from winter to summer, and she was desperate to reduce her bills...Her secret? She connected her utility accounts with OhmConnect, which pays residents to lessen their energy usage during critical times and helps prevent California blackouts.
In Bakersfield, Calif., Melissa Bryson has been participating in a program of demand-response aggregator OhmConnect Inc. for four years and usually makes about $400 a summer in reward points and cash. During the heat wave in September, she also earned gift cards to Starbucks, Cold Stone Creamery and Amazon for slashing her energy use. Demand response is paid for by grid operators or utilities with funding ultimately coming from all users.
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...companies like OhmConnect Energy are working to provide the people of west Texas with cheaper energy pricing and options.
So, why are energy prices on the rise? Cisco DeVries, chief executive officer of OhmConnect, points to the war in Ukraine and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events due to climate change — such as the 2021 winter storm in Texas, which wrecked the state’s power grid, and the ongoing drought in California, which has affected the state’s hydropower supplies — for taking their toll on existing energy systems throughout the U.S.
Matt Duesterberg is co-founder and president of OhmConnect.Matt’s problem: How do you build a business around getting people to save energy? Not all that much. And not all the time. But just enough, at just the right time. OhmConnect is paying customers to reduce their household’s energy usage at times of high demand. The company is a window into the bizarre world of energy markets — and human behavior.
DeVries says his company offers a free service to customers to help them lower their energy bills and even pay them to do so.“We’ll let you know with a text message and an email when it’s time to reduce and if you want to reduce more and get paid more and do it automatically, people connect things like Smart thermostats or Smart plugs that we can then turn off automatically on your behalf if you want that extra help,” DeVries said.
With the rise of distributed energy resources (DERs), opportunities are emerging for virtual power plants (VPPs) to support better demand response by the grid. One example is Google-backed OhmConnect’s platform, providing customers incentives and benefits to organize electricity usage to avoid high-risk times by integrating appliances and devices from 30 companies and manufacturers.
Providing more real-time pricing information "will help consumers manage their energy use, reduce their energy bills, and lead to more automation," OhmConnect Inc. CEO Cisco DeVries said in an Oct. 13 email.
The Oakland, Calif.-based company pays households to reduce their power consumption when the grid is stressed and then bids those savings into wholesale power markets. OhmConnect had a significant impact during the recent heat wave: The company said that from Aug. 31 to Sept. 9, its more than 200,000 active members in California saved 1.5 GWh of energy, equal to taking an estimated million homes off the grid for an hour, and earned over $2.7 million in rewards.
OhmConnect is a California startup that pays people to cut their energy use when the grid is strained. CEO Cisco DeVries joined "Bloomberg Markets: The European Close" to talk about how it works and whether the platform could be used to help mitigate Europe's energy crisis. (Source: Bloomberg)
Energy manager OhmConnect’s California customers earned “over $2.7 million,” for reducing dispatch 1.5 GWh during those nine days, its CEO and founder Cisco DeVries said. And Google Nest smart thermostats “reduced usage 72 MW,” Google Nest Head of Energy Partnerships Hannah Bascom reported.
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Don Whaley: "Not only is your heating bill going to be higher as we roll into the winter, but so is your electric bill as we are already seeing is a substantially and great deal of that has to do with the elevated cost of natural gas."
KRCR spoke with the CEO of OhmConnect, an Oakland-based energy management company that works with utilities like PG&E, solar companies, and even Google to come up with the best ways for people to save energy and lower their utility costs.
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Don Whaley: "...In California, it's not just how much you use, but when you use it. So, people need to be aware of consumption, but they also need to be aware of the time of day that consumption occurs, because those factors dramatically affect what you pay every month...customers get to reduce consumption, which lowers their bill, they get rewarded, which further lowers their bill, and the grid is stabilized..."
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Don Whaley: "Not only is your heating bill going to be higher as we roll into the winter, but so is your electric bill as we are already seeing is a substantially and great deal of that has to do with the elevated cost of natural gas."
OhmConnect will notify you whenever your area has times of high power usage. When there’s high power usage, “peaker” power plants will be turned on, which are powered mostly by fossil fuels, bad for the environment, and expensive for the utility companies. Learn more about OhmConnect by reading my OhmConnect review!
Last week, for the second time in three years, California’s power grid was strained to the limit by record-high demand in the midst of a searing heat wave. But just like they did during the state’s grid emergencies of 2020, California consumers came to the rescue.
Numerous companies and homeowners are proving the upside of broadening grid access. OhmConnect, Tesla, and other companies are providing hundreds of megawatts of electricity capacity, forestalling rolling blackouts in California. Community solar developers in Minnesota have installed over 800 megawatts of solar projects that are reducing energy bills for over 12,000 households and hundreds of businesses. More than 1 in 4 Hawaiian households have spent their own money to add electricity capacity, reducing the island state’s reliance on imported fuel oil.
The proposal offers a vision of “a viable dynamic future grid,” and “utilities are critical to that vision, but it will not work without innovative third-party entrepreneurs engaging customers,” customer-owned device aggregator OhmConnect CEO and Founder Cisco DeVries cautioned.
Residents responded to public- and private-sector appeals to cut their electricity consumption as temperatures rose above 110 degrees across much of Northern California. Even though electricity demand was more than 10 percent higher than it was during the 2020 heat wave, the grid avoided the outages that swept the state for two nights that August.
OhmConnect, you will recall, is the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) company that leverages artificial intelligence to manage a vast network of smart devices in California homes* that works to conserve energy during peak periods.
I believe that the increasing adoption of OhmConnect by California homeowners likely represents a significant portion of the “consumer conservation” that California ISO credited with saving the state from disruptive, dangerous rolling blackouts.
Senator Josh Becker: "...You're encouraged to save throughout the year, and you may get once a week or 5-6-7, 8 times a month..."
Senator Josh Becker: "...with a new wave of what we call demand response, everyone can sign up. You can sign up through utility or a third party like OhConnect..."
"...They actually pay you, when the grid is strapped, to down your energy usage and you actually get paid for it so I want to commend people that check out OhmConnect.com..."
Curt: "It's a bit of a vicious cycle where the heat itself causes you to use more electricity, but it also makes the grid itself a little bit less..."
Curt: "It's safe to say that there is serious concern about supply not meeting demand. There's obviously the heatwave..."
Cisco: "...My company pays you to reduce your energy use from your average use during key times like this and we have people who have gotten really good at messing with the system to try to figure out how to reduce as much as they can. Obviously your thermostat makes a big deal, you want to be lazy, you want to put off all your chores – your dinner, dishwasher, your appliances. But after that, it can get a little tricky. This is when we get into our expert tips..."
Curt: "In these kind of super heatwaves, the heat itself..."
Cisco: "...There's just not enough power available to meet the demand that people have by turning on their air conditioning and trying to stay cool..."
Clean energy innovators believe that they can win that race but acknowledge time is tight."
I absolutely think that it is possible for the state to keep the lights on without Diablo Canyon in the near term," OhmConnect Inc. CEO Cisco DeVries said in an interview. "The problem is we're behind schedule with a bunch of things we needed to turn off Diablo Canyon." OhmConnect, an Oakland, Calif.-based company that pays households to reduce their power consumption when the grid is stressed and then bids those savings into wholesale power markets, could be a big benefactor of the law's call to set targets for such flexible demand to reduce peak power consumption.
El Operador Independiente del Sistema de California, que administra la red eléctrica del estado, informó que la Alerta Flex de este lunes se extenderá desde las 4:00 pm hasta las 10:00 pm. En medio de la intensa ola de calor, la Oficina de Servicios de Emergencia del Gobernador de California advirtió que la única forma de evitar apagones es seguir ahorrando energía. "Este es un evento extraordinario", recalcó Elliot Mainzer, presidente y director ejecutivo de California ISO.
"Together, we can actually reduce over 200 megawatts at a time. That's like taking a small city and just turning it off."
When extreme heat or bitter cold threaten to overwhelm fragile power grids in places like California and Texas, there’s an effective, old-school tool to avoid a shortfall: turn the lights off. But how to make that happen? The key may be “demand response” -- voluntary conservation programs that kick in during critical hours. In many cases, civic-minded citizens are doing their part, simply opting not to use appliances when the grid is most stressed. But others are being enticed with big financial carrots -- as well as gift cards.
Lawmakers voted to keep the state’s last nuclear plant operating, but California still needs to massively ramp up renewable energy, grid storage, efficiency and distributed energy.
Cisco: "We're a free service that actually pays you to reduce your energy use during these key times...where the grid is stressed, it's very dirty, and electricity is very expensive. So, it's really a win, win where you make some money, your energy bill comes down a bit, and we can save the grid from having blackouts..."
Cisco: "We are facing certainly the greatest risk of blackouts we've faced since August of 2020, when the state last had rolling blackouts..."
Is your wallet feeling the pinch? You’re not the only one. OhmConnect can help you save energy and lower your electricity bill. Plus, you can earn great rewards, giveaways and enter to win some pretty cool prizes (like a trip to Disneyland or even $5000 cash!). It’s easy! Simply sign up, connect your SCE utility account so they know how much energy you save and reduce your energy use when electricity is most expensive.
OhmConnect said its demand response network of customers offers a technology that matches the needs of the California Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP). The program pays significantly higher rates for electricity than the program in which Ohm’s customers are enrolled. Ohm communicated this after Tesla’s Virtual power Plant got big headlines for participating in the August 17th California Flex Alert.
There also are third-party companies that perform this function in innovative ways – rewarding their customers and making saving energy both fun and easy to accomplish. One example is OhmConnect, which rewards customers with cash and prizes when they lower electricity consumption or shift their homes to smart thermostats and plugs. The service is free to California households. The ability to empower our energy customers to be active participants in their electric grid can happen.
These warnings are one reason DR is particularly in vogue right now. DR is nothing new, but after early DR utility programs dragged the concept through the mud for many homeowners, tech companies have cleaned it up and repackaged it. Leap and OhmConnect are two examples of new school DR providers. They integrate with various smart home hardware and software companies to amass arsenals of DER that can be dispatched in all sorts of clever combinations.
OhmConnect, the leading provider of residential energy flexibility, today announced the appointment of David Cooper as Chief Financial Officer. David joins OhmConnect from Ripple Foods where he helped lead the rapidly growing plant-based food company. He brings a track record of $24B+ in financial transactions, including IPOs, tax-free spin-offs, M&A, debt financings, an LBO, and a rights offering.
OhmConnect, the leading provider of residential energy flexibility, today announced the appointment of David Cooper as Chief Financial Officer. David joins OhmConnect from Ripple Foods where he helped lead the rapidly growing plant-based food company. He brings a track record of $24B+ in financial transactions, including IPOs, tax-free spin-offs, M&A, debt financings, an LBO, and a rights offering.
OhmConnect, the leading provider of residential energy flexibility, today announced the appointment of David Cooper as Chief Financial Officer. David joins OhmConnect from Ripple Foods where he helped lead the rapidly growing plant-based food company. He brings a track record of $24B+ in financial transactions, including IPOs, tax-free spin-offs, M&A, debt financings, an LBO, and a rights offering.
OhmConnect, the leading provider of residential energy flexibility, today announced the appointment of David Cooper as Chief Financial Officer. David joins OhmConnect from Ripple Foods where he helped lead the rapidly growing plant-based food company. He brings a track record of $24B+ in financial transactions, including IPOs, tax-free spin-offs, M&A, debt financings, an LBO, and a rights offering.
Extreme heat is expected to escalate strain on California's power grid, and leaders discussed balancing cleaner energy sources with ensuring grid reliability.
A single SunVault with a larger battery capacity can provide up to three days of backup so customers can power essential devices for longer. SunVault is also eligible for various grid services programs including ConnectedSolutions VPP and OhmConnect – enabling customers to get paid for allowing the utility to use stored energy during peak demand and contribute to a more stable power grid in their community.
Demand from the state’s power grid is at a record high and now battery storage facilities are at the forefront of providing extra power. Austin-based, Jupiter Power, is a Texas-based energy storage company that bridges the gap between timing and basis of energy supply and demand to the state’s power grid.
A more than $500 PG&E bill was something Joe Martinez wasn't expecting this month."
I can't believe my bill was so high when I'm doing everything I possibly can to save on my energy bill," he said.
Letting power companies adjust the appliances of consenting customers could avert blackouts. Some Republicans think it’s government intrusion.
In the face of extreme heat, utilities from New York to Tokyo are offering customers prizes if they can successfully reduce their power consumption.
Don Whaley: "As everyone knows, it gets hot in Texas, especially in the summer time. The hotter it gets, the higher the bills get. Unfortunately, this year, the energy cost, as we all have seen at the pump, are going to be just as high on your electric bill. So, it's really, really important that you pay attention to when you use, what you use, and how much you use, and cut back when you can..."
Don Whaley: "As everyone knows, it gets hot in Texas, especially in the summer time. The hotter it gets, the higher the bills get. Unfortunately, this year, the energy cost, as we all have seen at the pump, are going to be just as high on your electric bill. So, it's really, really important that you pay attention to when you use, what you use, and how much you use, and cut back when you can..."
Don Whaley: "As everyone knows, it gets hot in Texas, especially in the summer time. The hotter it gets, the higher the bills get. Unfortunately, this year, the energy cost, as we all have seen at the pump, are going to be just as high on your electric bill. So, it's really, really important that you pay attention to when you use, what you use, and how much you use, and cut back when you can..."
Don Whaley: "As everyone knows, it gets hot in Texas, especially in the summer time. The hotter it gets, the higher the bills get. Unfortunately, this year, the energy cost, as we all have seen at the pump, are going to be just as high on your electric bill. So, it's really, really important that you pay attention to when you use, what you use, and how much you use, and cut back when you can..."
Don Whaley: "As everyone knows, it gets hot in Texas, especially in the summer time. The hotter it gets, the higher the bills get. Unfortunately, this year, the energy cost, as we all have seen at the pump, are going to be just as high on your electric bill. So, it's really, really important that you pay attention to when you use, what you use, and how much you use, and cut back when you can..."
Don Whaley: "As everyone knows, it gets hot in Texas, especially in the summer time. The hotter it gets, the higher the bills get. Unfortunately, this year, the energy cost, as we all have seen at the pump, are going to be just as high on your electric bill. So, it's really, really important that you pay attention to when you use, what you use, and how much you use, and cut back when you can..."
OhmConnect, an Oakland-based residential energy flexibility startup, raised $55m in Series D funding.
"The United States is potentially in for a world of hurt this summer," said Cisco DeVries, CEO of OhmConnect Inc., an Oakland, Calif.-based company that pays households to cut their power use when the grid is stressed and then bids those demand-side savings into wholesale power markets. "But I hope that, by what we do this summer, we can avoid blackouts or at least minimize them [and] also set us up to avoid this kind of crisis issue every summer."
Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand asks residents to consider cutting electric use during times of peak demand in hopes of convincing the state to close the AES power plant once and for all.
To discontinue it, Brand and other city representatives encourage Redondo Beach residents to join OhmConnect, an Oakland-based “virtual power plant” that notifies participants of peak demand so they can cut their use.
CalChoice Associate Members, in partnership with OhmConnect, are offering residential customers a special opportunity to help reduce energy use and save on electricity bills.
Oakland startup OhmConnect raised a $55 million Series D this week to bring its unique solution to saving energy consumption in households to the masses. The round was led by ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) and TELUS Ventures, and included investment by Carrier and SunPower.
San Francisco-based residential energy flexibility provider OhmConnect raised $55M in Series Dfunding. OhmConnect uses a gamified approach to help households reduce power usage during peak load periods by notifying users about upcoming electricity demand surges. The platform, in turn, rewards energy conservation behavior with cash incentives and awards.
Officials and power operators are bracing the public for blackouts caused by higher-than-average temperatures this summer. Utility officials in California and Arizona are warning of potential interruptions this summer due to the strain on energy supplies. Heat waves and drought conditions weaken power grids and available electricity reserves. This also makes hydroelectric power less reliable and raises the risk of wildfires. Cisco DeVries, CEO of OhmConnect, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
OhmConnect, an Oakland-based residential energy flexibility provider, raised $55 million in Series D funding. ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, and TELUS Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including Carrier and SunPower.
OhmConnect has raised a $55 million Series D led by ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners and TELUS Ventures. The Oakland, Calif.-based company helps residents manage their at-home electricity and rewards them for reducing their energy use during times of peak demand.
Residential energy demand management company OhmConnect announced a $55 million Series D round that was led by ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, and TELUS Ventures. Investors also included Carrier and SunPower, whose business tie with the company was announced in March.
OhmConnect, an Oakland-based residential energy flexibility startup, raised $55 million in Series D funding. ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners and TELUS Ventures co-led, and were joined by Carrier and SunPower. (Axios)
This summer will be tough on U.S. power grids. Startup OhmConnect is ready to pay 200,000-plus households to help out by saving energy.
Founder and former President of Direct Energy, and current President of OhmConnect Energy, Don Whaley, shares energy saving tips on KPRC 2+ Tuesday morning.
The last thing consumers want to hear is an increase in power costs this summer following the news last week of rising threats of rolling blackouts across half of the US.
US households are about to get some unwelcome mail this summer: some of the highest power bills they’ve ever seen.
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- In this week’s Powering the Permian, after six power generators that supply power to around 580,000 Texans went offline recently… Don Whaley of OhmConnect Energy explains the role record breaking heat plays in pushing the power grid to it’s brink.
As the price at the pump goes up, some analysts are predicting that we haven’t seen the peak yet. To discuss this and the sharp increase in natural gas and electricity prices, we speak to energy consultant Don Whaley.
OhmConnect, the world's leading residential energy flexibility provider, today (May 18) launched a campaign in partnership with the City of Redondo Beach to shut down the AES Redondo Beach power plant. The 68-year-old gas-fired peaker plant, which incongruously sits on a public beach, has long been a blight to residents and visitors.
ERCOT is encouraging residents to conserve energy in order to meet demand. Don Whaley is the President of OhmConnect Energy. He has some energy saving tips that will help save money and help relieve stress on the grid this summer.
Oakland-based OhmConnect Energy began as a software company, delivering demand response metrics for customers. In 2021, they tapped my guest, Don Whaley, to preside over a REP arm, which would give customers unique control over their power usage. Don served as president of Direct Energy during the early days of deregulation, and is intimately familiar with the market—and its limitations.
Fire overnight at power plant in Fort Bend County
It’s a red day on Wall Street, and markets are falling again. The Nasdaq has now wiped out a year and a half of gains. Russia threatens Elon Musk for helping Ukraine. But Ukrainain forces say his support changed the course of the war. There are power shortage warnings across the United States. Grid operators say we could see blackouts this summer. We have the top five countdown from the weekend box office results. Who won and by how much? Indoor golf has been booming since the pandemic started. We talk to two businesses that are seeing tremendous growth.
Energy management company OhmConnect announced a new program to incentivize smart thermostats owners to reduce energy. The announcement is the latest in how smart technologies are working to monetize customer consumption habits.
Such power usage has drawn considerable criticism sullying Bitcoin mining’s reputation. Cisco DeVries, CEO of residential energy use manager OhmConnect Inc., warned that crypto mining would “add demand” to the already damaged grid.
The last few years have accelerated the conversation for many investors around the importance of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their investment analysis to drive returns. ESG investing as we know it began in the 1960s, fueled by the civil rights, antiwar, and environmental movements. It was originally coined as “socially responsible investing” and manifested in strategies like the boycott of companies who provided weapons used in the war, avoiding “sin” stocks that dealt in alcohol, tobacco, or gambling, and targeted investments into housing projects.
Can household energy use be sensed down to the individual plug load? Yes, says this startup, which is embedding its tech in smart meters and electrical panels.
The Texas grid operator expects crypto miners to increase electricity demand by up to 6 gigawatts by mid-2023, more than enough to power every home in Houston.
Whether you’re shopping on the open market for a house or simply looking for some eco-friendly home improvements for where you live, heed this list to keep more money in your pocketbook.
Cisco DeVries, CEO of clean energy company OhmConnect, uses partnerships with well-known organizations to build trust in his brand. By gamifying energy reduction, customers lower their carbon footprint and energy bill and learn essential facts about clean energy. The company isn’t overwhelming customers with information but instead making the most relevant information accessible where customers already are.
Don Whaley: "We're going to see this summer, certainly in Texas and other areas that have high air conditioning load, we're going to see significant increases in the cost of electricity."
According to Cisco DeVries, CEO of OhmConnect and energy expert, peak energy times like 6 p.m. when everyone is home from work causes a surge in energy demands. Because of this, CO2 intensive auxiliary ‘peaker’ plants fire up instead of the typical conventional plant. This leads to two to three times the amount of carbon emissions in the environment, and even a pricier energy bill. Seasonal peak demand occurs when weather gets hotter or colder than normal and heating and cooling demand is at its highest. During hot spells, added heat from clothes drying, cooking, and dishwasher use can make your air conditioner run longer as it works to remove the excess heat and humidity.
SunPower is teaming with OhmConnect, a residential energy management company, and also invested in its latest funding round. SunPower customers can access OhmConnect’s gamified user experience and get rewarded to manage their electricity use during peak usage periods. These collaborations expand OhmConnect’s energy platform to a network of millions of grid-responsive devices from 30 companies and manufacturers.
Electrification—replacing fossil fuels with electricity to provide power—is a major part of the global effort toward decarbonization. It touches many sectors, and is sparking even more discussion about its impact on energy consumption and cost.
With SunPower, OhmConnect is greatly expanding the ecosystem of homes that can leverage the energy they generate to help stabilize the increasingly vulnerable grid. Through the collaboration, SunPower’s tens of thousands of solar and SunVault storage customers will have the option to participate with the OhmConnect platform. Participants receive incentives to automatically dispatch energy reserves to the grid during peak demand times. Together, the companies are creating a scalable way to impact grid reliability, while enabling homeowners to save even more money on their systems and energy bills.
OhmConnect is an Oakland-based group that creates grid-connected homes to leverage energy storage, solar power, heating, cooling, and ventilation technology, and smart thermostats. The company on March 31 said it is joining SunPower Corp. and Carrier in a venture that will allow customers using SunPower’s and Carrier’s solutions to access OhmConnect’s gamified user experience, which enables customers to be rewarded for managing their electricity use during peak usage periods, mitigating impacts to the grid.
Along with surging oil and gas prices, several other things are causing your energy bill to soar.
OhmConnect is now offering $10 for new members who join using a referral link and connect their utility account. You’ll also get a $10 bonus for every person you refer to the energy-saving service. More referral promos here.
OhmConnect is a free service that rewards you for saving energy during peak hours. If you’re a California resident with PG&E, SCE or SDG&E service, or a Texas resident with Smart Meter Texas, you’re eligible to participate in OhmConnect.
Keep reading for more information on OhmConnect and its current offers.
In the latest report from the CEC it found 59% of the state's electricity came from renewable and zero carbon sources in 2020.
“We've done this very quickly. And that should give us all hope that we can get in front of the climate crisis,” said Cisco DeVries.
He’s the CEO of OhmConnect, a Clean Energy company that serves 200,000 customers statewide including 28,000 in San Diego.
A startup that pays hundreds of thousands of Californians to use less power is now selling electricity in Texas, with an ERCOT veteran leading the expansion effort.Oakland, California-based OhmConnect Energy announced Feb. 8 it has entered the Electric Reliability Council of Texas retail electricity market.
The newest retail electricity provider in Texas, OhmConnect Energy (OCE), has entered the market with a unique business proposition: pay Texans to save energy.
The “flexible demand” program is modeled after parent company OhmConnect’s business in California, where its nearly 200,000 customers helped stabilize the grid by removing almost 1GWh of energy usage between August 13-20, 2020. Together those customers received $1 million for their energy-saving efforts, the company said.
In return for their efforts at reducing their energy use during peak energy times when stress on the electric grid is highest, OCE gives its customers reward points that can be turned into cash, converted into credits on their electricity bills, entered into prize drawings or used to buy smart devices that further reduce their energy use. This saves customers money while relieving pressure on the Texas grid.
Fixed rate, no hidden fees, and a "get paid to save energy" model will support Texans in changing times.
The California-founded company has opened a new business arm in Texas that is a registered retail electricity provider, coupled with its standard flexible demand response services.
OCE delivers reliable and affordable fixed-rate electricity across Texas and encourages customers to reduce their energy use during peak energy times when stress on the electric grid is highest. In return for their energy-saving efforts, OCE gives its customers reward points that can be turned into cash, converted into credits on their electricity bills, entered into prize drawings, or used to...
Don Whaley: “We set a baseline for the expected usage of that time of day, based on your usage. Then when you save, we reward you with points that turn into dollars that you can cash in on an Amazon credit card, you can get a PayPal or you can get a discount off your electric bill with us,” said Whaley.
The state of Texas is about a month away from the one year anniversary of Winter Storm Uri — but is the state better prepared this winter season? Don Whaley, president at OhmConnect Texas, looked at where the state is now versus then in a guest column for InnovationMap.
The Winter Storm Uri, which struck Texas in February of 2021, was an unprecedented event in both severity and duration. At its most extreme, temperatures were as much as 40 to 50 degrees below their historic averages. The storm resulted in the largest controlled blackout in U.S. history, forcing the shedding of more than 23 gigawatts of load, the loss of power to 4.5 million homes and businesses for periods of one to four days, and the tragic loss of hundreds of lives.
Energy costs are a necessary part of life for most people, but some companies use AI to reduce the cost and limit the environmental impact. OhmConnect customers connect their smart plugs, smart thermostats and smart appliances to a single system. AI tracks each home’s usage and automatically recommends when to save energy. During peak times, users get alerts about what devices to turn off, such as if they have a light on or are running the dishwasher when electricity is more expensive. If the customer agrees, the device is automatically shut down and then turned on again during non-peak times. On average, OhmConnect users save around $100 on energy costs every year.
Energy costs are a necessary part of life for most people, but some companies use AI to reduce the cost and limit the environmental impact. OhmConnect customers connect their smart plugs, smart thermostats and smart appliances to a single system. AI tracks each home’s usage and automatically recommends when to save energy. During peak times, users get alerts about what devices to turn off, such as if they have a light on or are running the dishwasher when electricity is more expensive. If the customer agrees, the device is automatically shut down and then turned on again during non-peak times. On average, OhmConnect users save around $100 on energy costs every year.
We’re also making it easier to conserve. Using OhmConnect’s software platform, we’ve engaged more than 3,000 residents to reduce their use of peak-period energy by 40,000 kilowatt hours, saving them money while saving our planet of metric 28 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Civitas, Colorado's largest oil and gas producer, says it is the state's first "carbon neutral" producer. To get there, it has eliminated some diesel-powered pumps, makes modifications to drilling and hydraulic fracturing equipment and its production sites. It also buys carbon credits to offset remaining emissions.
Joey Lande, Marin Clean Energy’s manager of customer programs, said its FLEXmarket programs have already exceeded initial expectations. Participants include companies active in two traditionally distinct categories of demand-side efforts.
The first includes energy-efficiency providers like CLEAResult and Ecology Action, which traditionally earn money by reducing customers’ overall energy consumption. The second are demand-response providers such as OhmConnect and Wexus, which are traditionally paid for load reductions specifically when the power grid is under stress.
In a move that recognizes the value of clean microgrid power to avert grid emergencies, California utility SDG&E and the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar inked a unique deal.
Global infrastructure is in desperate need of an upgrade. From public transportation to the power grid, we take a look at the biggest opportunities for tech companies to make systems safer, greener, and more reliable.
"During last year’s terrible heat wave, OhmConnect’s Resi-Station saved a total of 1 Gigawatts of power, cut down time lost to black-outs by six days, and earned money for the residents and businesses in its network. Imagine what Resi-Station will be able to do with 1 million devices in its network!"
"OhmConnect has pledged to give away up to 1 million smart thermostats over the next few months to combat the risk of summer grid emergencies in California. The move could be seen as a massive public relations gambit, complete with a celebrity endorsement from Kristen Bell and contests between cities to enroll the most customers.
But to OhmConnect CEO Cisco DeVries, it’s also a “commitment of $100 million in clean energy infrastructure in people’s homes” — a rough estimate of how much it will cost to buy the thermostats."
1:16s-1:26s
Cisco: "We automat the process - so now you save energy and save money on your utiliy bill without lifting a finger or ever thinking about or mostly even knowing that it's happening."
"Really what OhmConnect has done is figure out how to get residential customers to act, essentially, in concert like a symphony, all at once,” the company's CEO Cisco DeVries tells Axios. "To reduce energy demand in really predictable, reliable ways, and so reliably that it allows grid managers to dispatch us, to dispatch connections to our customers, instead of turning on a power plant."
"Cities partnering with the company view it as a way to help ward off rolling blackouts like the ones the state experienced over two days in August. "
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Cisco: "In order to keep the grid stable, we have to turn the power off for neighborhoods and communities. We want to keep that from happening this year and OhmConnect is one of the best ways the state has to keep the lights on for everybody, to keep the power on for everybody, but to reduce energy use."
“We were able to provide a lot of energy savings even in a situation in which we were having a heatwave and the grid was in crisis,” DeVries says. “Fossil fuel power plants were struggling. Some went offline. Transmission lines were failing. OhmConnect showed up, and I think that’s been an important part of proving that we can be even more reliable than fossil fuels.”
“For a large portion of our customers, OhmConnect is the first time they’ve really seen a benefit because of the transition to renewable energy and a smart grid,” says DeVries. “They’re getting paid to participate in the grid in a way that they haven’t had the ability to do. I think it’s really critical that as we build out the next generation of infrastructure to make sure that we’re not leaving anybody behind.”
As people look for ways to save money and avoid debt, OhmConnect offers one solution for residents of California. OhmConnect works with utility companies to learn when the energy grid will be particularly stressed. OhmConnect then asks its users to lower their energy consumption during a specified time [..]
11:47s-11:59s Narrator: "OhmConnect is a company trying to change that. It's gamified saving energy, letting users accumlate points that they can later cash out. Its create a whole business model on paying customer to use less."
"One of the biggest players is Oakland-based OhmConnect, which pays households to use less electricity when the grid is stressed and sells the aggregated savings into energy markets. Last month, the start-up announced a $100-million investment from Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, which was spun out of Google parent company Alphabet Inc.
The bulk of the money will finance Resi-Station, which at 550 megawatts would be the world’s largest virtual power plant."
The distributed clean power plant, Resi-Station, backed by an $80 million SIP commitment, will make California’s power system more sustainable and resilient in response to the pressures of climate change, and deliver millions of dollars in savings to residents.
SIP led OhmConnect’s Series C round, investing $20 million in OhmConnect, a leading residential demand response and energy services technology company that predicts, incentivizes, and coordinates consumer energy savings.
One company that participated in DRAM, but graduated to qualifying as a non-generating participant in California's resource adequacy market, is OhmConnect. The startup pays people for reducing their household consumption at key times, sharing the revenue made from selling that aggregated capacity. OhmConnect eliminated nearly 1 gigawatt-hour of peak demand during the heat wave from August 13 to 20, paying its customers $1 million in the process, said CEO Cisco DeVries.
The extreme heat storms that hit California this August and September stressed our electricity systems in ways our energy planning agencies did not expect or plan for, forcing us to rethink the quantity and type of electric capacity needed to meet customers' demand. The energy challenges caused by climate change require solutions that address near term needs to "keep the lights on," while not worsening an already dire situation by burning more fossil fuel.
Emera Technologies has developed a residential, plug-and-play microgrid system called BlockEnergy that is designed to be owned and operated by utilities – a sector in search of a way to offer microgrids that works within its business structure.
“Enabling appliances to respond in favorable ways to grid conditions, such as deferring a refrigerator’s defrost cycle, could be beneficial if done on a large scale,” she said. Some of those types of reductions did happen during that week in August, OhmConnect Chief Executive Cisco DeVries said in an interview. OhmConnect, which operates in California, Texas, and Toronto, Canada, has 150,000 customers and controls 60,000 devices.
“The wildfires are the ‘hurricanes of California.’ They will come back every year. It is unclear where and when, but our customers are planning for the new normal.” Incentives and very high electric rates bolster the argument for immediate action and justify microgrid planning, said Lohr. And OhmConnect quadrupled the number of new customers during the mid-August heatwaves, said Cisco DeVries, company president. The customers get paid for OhmConnect to control their appliances or home microgrids for load management or to provide power to utilities.
With record-breaking heat this summer and many people working from home, San Diegans may have seen a spike in their energy bill. OhmConnect is a free service helping residents earn cash and save energy.“We’ve seen people’s energy bills increase typically from 10 to 15 percent,” says Curtis Tongue, Co-Founder of OhmConnect.
“The wildfires are the ‘hurricanes of California.’ They will come back every year. It is unclear where and when, but our customers are planning for the new normal.” Incentives and very high electric rates bolster the argument for immediate action and justify microgrid planning, said Lohr. And OhmConnect quadrupled the number of new customers during the mid-August heatwaves, said Cisco DeVries, company president. The customers get paid for OhmConnect to control their appliances or home microgrids for load management or to provide power to utilities.
Just because renters cannot access the full benefits of clean energy doesn’t mean they can’t participate in a decentralized grid. In fact, they can help prevent more scarcity-based outages like the ones that hit California in August.State leaders implored residents to voluntarily cut back on their power during that heat wave (and people complied). But demand response services like OhmConnect pay people to do that.
The proliferation of new technologies has transformed areas of mobility and software into comprehensive service offerings to bolster operations. Now, public sector entities are leading the charge on a tech-driven service offering that's been bubbling under the surface for decades: Energy Efficiency as a Service (EEaaS).
Over Labor Day weekend, when temperatures were soaring, at the request of the California Energy Commission, OhmConnect put out an appeal to its 150,000 active participants throughout California urging them to cut back even more. It normally pays its customers between $15 to $45 a month for their conservation efforts. That weekend, though, it paid members about $300,000. Plus, it sweetened the pot.
The proliferation of new technologies has transformed areas of mobility and software into comprehensive service offerings to bolster operations. Now, public sector entities are leading the charge on a tech-driven service offering that's been bubbling under the surface for decades: Energy Efficiency as a Service (EEaaS).
The company OhmConnect oversees a collection of home microgrids and actually took those private home grids and put their capacity to the grid, creating an additional 220 MWh of capacity to the struggling centralized power grid in California. OhmConnect paid customers $300,000 in a single day, according to Microgrid Knowledge, for their portion of the capacity the company provided to the larger grid.
OhmConnect is a private aggregator of customer-sited DR. Its 150,000 California customers answered calls over 200 days in 2019 and at times reduced state peak demand over 150 MW, OhmConnect CEO Cisco DeVries said. "Our aggregations of nearly 60,000 devices and appliances, including thermostats, batteries and home car chargers are bid into the CAISO market 10,000 times a day, like small power plants on standby all over the state," he said.
California’s distributed energy resources add up to gigawatts' worth of capacity that could be used to prevent future rolling blackouts and balance the state’s increasingly clean-powered grid — if the state can compensate them for those services.
If you’re like me you are always look for ways to trim the utility bills you have options. California residents can sign up for OhmConnect, which sends you notifications to turn off your appliances for an hour each day. If you reduce your usage enough, OhmConnect will give you points that you can accumulate to earn cash.
“We reduced over 200 MW of load on August 14 and 18, almost 200 MW on August 17, and almost 1 GWh of total energy usage from August 13-20,” CEO Cisco DeVries said. “That is equivalent to taking over 600,000 homes offline for an hour.”
Flexibility is not a new concept. Utilities have had limited “demand response” programs, which ask customers to flex their energy use, for years. Most common are air conditioning programs, in which customers allow the utility to cycle off their air conditioner for a fraction of each hour using a radio control. In aggregate, these programs can reduce total demand in a way that customers barely notice. [...] programs, such as those run by third parties like OhmConnect, target residential users. In a recent survey of utilities by the Smart Electric Power Alliance, 50 percent of utilities responded that they were interested in implementing demand response programs, 20 percent are currently planning to implement demand response programs, and just 5 percent have implemented programs
[...] A common mistake? Blasting your air conditioner as soon as you get home. This makes it work harder, hiking up the bill. Instead try investing in a smart thermostat, which can cost around $170, but usually pays for itself in the first year. Like with a regular thermostat, you set it to the ideal temperatures during specific time periods, but it monitors your energy use and behavior and automatically adjusts settings to make energy use as efficient as possible, saving you an average of 15 percent on cooling (nearly $145 annually) and 12 percent on heating in the winter..
Depending on whom you ask, California is a leader in clean energy or a cautionary tale. Power outages in August prompted stern critiques from Republicans. “In California”, Donald Trump tweeted, “Democrats have intentionally implemented rolling blackouts—forcing Americans in the dark.” In addition to provoking outrage and derision, however, the episode is also likely to inspire investment.
Amid record heat and wildfires, rolling blackouts affected millions of Californians last week. But millions more low-income households in California and nationwide face loss of service for a different reason. Their electric bills have gone up in the pandemic, and they can't pay them. Utilities want to collect, and are demanding an end to moratoria on shut-offs
A network of home microgrids and networked home appliances controlled by OhmConnect on August 15 provided 220 MWh to the grid as a generating resource, said Cisco DeVries, CEO of OhmConnect, which operates a network of microgrids and a virtual power plant.
The heat wave has many families running air conditioning non-stop, but there are steps you can take to help lower your bill."What families need to realize is there are strategies to save," said Andrea Woroch, money saving expert
OhmConnect paid out more than $300,000 to its California residential demand response users when temperatures soared last Friday, a day in which the company’s virtual power plant supplied more than 200 MWh to California’s grid by harnessing the power of its fleet of energy-saving homes and smart devices across the state.
Instead of making more electricity, one option is to simply reduce demand on hot days. The state already has voluntary programs where homeowners and large commercial and industrial facilities pay lower electricity rates, in exchange for agreeing to reduce their power use on very hot days. Private companies, like OhmConnect, also enroll homeowners to reduce their use on demand.
OhmConnect, California's leading residential clean energy program, supported California Independent System Operator's (CAISO) Flex Alert by incentivizing decreased home energy usage on Friday. In just one day, OhmConnect awarded over $300,000 to its active users.
Scorching heat across the Western United States has left California scrambling to avoid rolling blackouts, as air conditioners send electricity use soaring. Some people blame the power outages on California's reliance on solar power, which drops off when the sun sets. But energy experts say state officials failed to prepare adequately for high temperatures, despite the fact that California's own scientists and regulators have warned that that increasingly common heat waves driven by climate change would stress the electricity grid.
We know that green energy is good, but can there be too much of a good thing? For instance, with unusually low demand during the COVID-19 lockdown, the United Kingdom's power consumption fell by nearly 20 percent this summer. That caused a surge in unused green energy. In May, the National Grid asked for emergency powers to switch off solar and wind farms and warned of blackouts and a "significant risk of disruption to security of supply.
OhmConnect operates a fleet comprising 150,000 residential customers in California, to whom it sends notices to reduce usage at key times. The company also controls 50,000 home devices in the state, which it can cycle on and off remotely. Collectively, the startup can deliver 150 megawatts of peak capacity to CAISO by eliminating consumption, DeVries said.
Cisco DeVries is the CEO of OhmConnect,a former White House aide to the US Secretary of Energy, and creator of theaward-winning property assessed clean energy program (PACE). OhmConnect isbringing energy use to the forefront of people’s minds, aiming to makeCalifornia 100 percent reliant on renewable energy through the company’s newdemand response model. The easiest, most effective way to do that is throughthe utilisation of smart devices that automatically make homes grid-responsive.This in turn will also stabilise California’s brittle grid, while automatingenergy savings for California residents and changing how energy is used acrossthe state. This is the future of demand response and it will make 100 percentreliance on renewables a reality.
It’s not just that we’re staying home more—and using more electricity when we do—but also that electricity pries are expected tcrease by 2.8 percent between 2020 and 2021, reports Statista. “Residents of states with the one-two punch of high summer air conditioning needs and higher average electricity prices are going to get the worst of it,” says Cisco DeVries, energy expert, former White House aide and CEO of .
If you live in an area that tends to have low humidity, you may want to consider evaporative coolers, window units that remove heat from the environment by using water evaporation to create cool air, says Cisco DeVries, an energy expert, former aide to the U.S. Secretary of Energy during the Clinton Administration and CEO of OhmConnect.
Energy bills in much of America “will be much, much higher,” said Cisco DeVries, a former White House aide and the CEO of OhmConnect, a company that helps households manage power demand. “With sheltering in place, people aren’t leaving their homes to seek air-conditioned refuge elsewhere, so they will be heavily reliant on their units to cool down their homes.”
In the United States, this summer has already proved usually hot. Now a long-lasting and potentially record-setting heat wave is expected to settle over much of the southwestern U.S. this weekend before spreading to the rest of the country, according to official forecasts.
Energy bills in much of America “will be much, much higher,” said Cisco DeVries, a former White House aide and the CEO of OhmConnect, a company that helps households manage power demand. “With sheltering in place, people aren’t leaving their homes to seek air-conditioned refuge elsewhere, so they will be heavily reliant on their units to cool down their homes.”
Coronavirus shutdowns have countless Americans spending more time at home than ever these days, and as the summer heat sets in, that means keeping air conditioners running for hours on end in a bid to stay cool. Unfortunately, battling the heat often comes at a staggeringly high cost; according to the US Energy Information Administration, air conditioning typically accounts for 12 percent of home energy costs - or about $265 on average.
Coronavirus shutdowns have countless Americans spending more time at home than ever these days, and as the summer heat sets in, that means keeping air conditioners running for hours on end in a bid to stay cool. Unfortunately, battling the heat often comes at a staggeringly high cost; according to the US Energy Information Administration, air conditioning typically accounts for 12 percent of home energy costs - or about $265 on average.
I applaud the House Select committee on their action plan to tackle the climate crisis. It is our moral imperative to address and resolve this crisis as rapidly as possible, and this plan promises to do so while also tackling urgent economic and health objectives. We have to think big, and we do not have the luxury of focusing on just one crisis at a time. As Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, the plan is a 'bold step for climate action now.
OhmConnect is a smart-grid startup that takes a different, tech-driven approach to balance power supply and demand. The service works like this. Utilities like California's PGE pay OhmConnect to reduce power consumption during specific times, which are identified in advance using predictive analytics. The company then (150,000 as of Summer 2019), who give it access to the web-connected smart electrical meters than many utilities have already installed in their homes.
Just because you turned the device off, doesn’t necessarily mean it stops using electricity,” says Cisco DeVries, CEO of. “Things like cable boxes, game consoles, microwaves, coffee makers, space heaters, phone chargers, and even powered toothbrushes can all continue to draw electricity when turned off.”
OhmConnect, a leading clean energy company, today announcedAutoOhms, a program that manages energy use for California residents whendemand is high and prices surge.
If you live in California or Texas, OhmConnect is another company that will pay you for cutting your energy usage during “peak” hours (usually weeknights), aka when energy demand is at its highest throughout the day.
"Based on our data, we've seen power surge about 12 percent since Coronavirus hit. We've seen pockets in the Central Valley where it's even higher. Across California if those persist, we predict customers might be on the hook for $1 billion and additional energy costs," said Curtis Tongue, OhmConnect Co-Founder.
No matter how cognizant we are of our spending habits, we're still stuck with the dreaded bills — and those bills can be particularly daunting now as millions of Americans are faced with job losses and other financial challenges in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, OhmConnect announced AutoOhms, its newest program that offers cash incentives for "timely, smarter energy use."AutoOhm will power down energy-intensive connected appliances in 15-minute increments during peak energy times. Customers will receive a text message when peak rates are about to kick in and can select appliances to power down through an app. Through this "gamified" experience, the customer can actively see their energy savings.
Clean energy company OhmConnect nveiled , a program that manages energy use for California residents when demand is high and prices surge.OhmConnect incentivizes timely, smarter energy use through cash payments to consumers. It is now offering AutoOhms as another way to get paid for saving energy. By connecting devices, like smart thermostats and plugs, an AutoOhm will power down energy-intensive appliances in 15-minute increments and residents will earn money without lifting a finger.
Demand response program uses gamification, targets peaks -- OhmConnect, a leading clean energy company, announced yesterday a program that manages energy use for...
Americans put down a lot of dough for their energy bills; the average household spends about $2,060 annually. Fortunately, there are plenty of — from unplugging devices completely to installing energy-efficient light bulbs to using programmable thermostats and electrical timers to washing your dishes and clothes in full loads during off-peak hours to getting paid to save energy through the app to simply double-checking your bills — that can help lower your utility costs year-round.
The residential aggregators that could be in a position to help bring flexible capacity to market this summer include AutoGrid, OhmConnect, Chai Energy, EnergyHub, Uplight and Sunrun, as well as newer entities such as Leap that are bringing a platform-provider approach to demand response aggregation.
Cisco DeVries, an energy expert and CEO of OhmConnect, a San Francisco–based company that’s dedicated to helping people rethink how they use their appliances, knows a thing or two about living in an energy-efficient space. To help, he’s sharing his expert tips for keeping down your bottom line during quarantine. (It’s not as difficult as you’d think.)
In case you didn't get the memo, sustainable living is here to stay. Nowadays, it's impossible to ignore all the studies that show how certain chemicals, materials, and products can affect your home and your health. Fortunately, many companies have risen to the occasion and created eco-friendly alternatives to some of our favorite household items.
This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Morning News on April 27, 2020. Video can be found when following the link above.
Energy Central's Podcast Series - Listen to the podcast for all details
We could all use a few energy-saving reminders right now. After all, thanks to quarantine and the shelter-in-place rules, most of us are at home now more than ever before. As a result, we are likely using up far more home energy than we did just a few short months ago. Nevertheless, even while home on quarantine, there are a lot of small things that we can do to reduce energy waste...
This may seem like an oddly specific request. But, as energy expert and CEO of OhmConnect Cisco DeVries explains, "during peak energy times like 6 p.m., utilities respond to the surge in demand by firing up inefficient—read: CO2 intensive—auxiliary 'peaker' plants, passing this cost onto consumers."
This may seem like an oddly specific request. But, as energy expert and CEO of OhmConnect Cisco DeVries explains, "during peak energy times like 6 p.m., utilities respond to the surge in demand by firing up inefficient—read: CO2 intensive—auxiliary 'peaker' plants, passing this cost onto consumers."
This may seem like an oddly specific request. But, as energy expert and CEO of OhmConnect Cisco DeVries explains, "during peak energy times like 6 p.m., utilities respond to the surge in demand by firing up inefficient—read: CO2 intensive—auxiliary 'peaker' plants, passing this cost onto consumers."
Andrea Woroch, Money-Saving Expert, joined 17 News at Sunrise to share how consumers can save money on monthly expenses and more...
News 8's Heather Myers spoke to a money saving and consumer expert. She shared dozens of ways you can make money right now, from your home...
Energy Central's Podcast Series - Listen to the podcast for all details
This week on the Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast, we dive into the world of on demand load shifting and the business model it supports outside of the utility space. The most typical load management strategies in the utility space involve large customers in the commercial and industrial sectors, but Matt Duesterberg and his fellow Co-Founders realized that, in aggregate, residential customers could make a huge impact as well...
We asked 20 green enthusiasts for their top picks on how to make your home energy efficient. Have you ever wondered how small changes in each home can lead to a big impact on the environment?...
Wouldn't it be nice if money grew on trees? Although you'll never find dollar bills sprouting from your favorite oak tree, you can uncover money in other places. By spending some time dissecting your spending habits and scrutinizing your expenses, you could free up money in your budget and save big – up to $5,000 in a year...
A Power outage occurred and was restored earlier today in Southern Humboldt and affected about one thousand three hundred customers. Some Humboldt County residents are saving energy and getting paid through OhmConnect. KMUD's Tanya Horlick reports...
People have realized that they can take control of their energy in lots of other ways. With their smart devices and a little bit of planning, consumers can now make money on their energy use, while simultaneously keeping the grid stable.
If you’re not supposed to swim against a riptide, is there a better, smarter way to paddle out of this predicament? Changing consumer behavior is tricky, in part because our brains are on autopilot a lot of the time ...
It's lights off at Christina Garcia's northwest Fresno home. She's just one of 60,000 Fresno residents who's using OhmConnect, a web site, to get paid for saving electricity. [...] Garcia has earned money weekly, but recently her choices turned into big cash for her. She won energy for life...
The Clean Power, Smart Power bill, introduced in California by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), was signed into law last week, mandating manufacturers to begin making smart appliances. [...] The bill moved forward with help from OhmConnect, developer of a simple, effective energy saving service that has helped 500,000 California consumers save over 2 million kilowatt-hours of dirty energy to date...
OhmConnect, the leading clean energy program for Californians, today announced the company has improved its residential energy-saving service, expanded its offerings, and increased its customer base to more than 500,000 customer signups. It has also named Cisco DeVries as CEO to take it to the next milestone goal: one million Californians actively engaged in saving energy, reducing the use of fossil fuels, and receiving an average of $300-$500 a year in return...
The San Francisco-based OhmConnect bridges the gap between consumers and the energy sector by paying users to cut their electricity use during high demand times and shifting use to low demand times. Doing so improves resiliency on the electric grid...
Many energy consumers in California, Texas, and Toronto are in luck: OhmConnect is a free service that notifies users during peak electricity consumption hours, keeping the peaker plants off and paying users for the energy they save...
In just-released 2018 energy use rankings, three local cities have been named as three of the top ten most-conserving communities in the state, according to a new Power Use survey from OhmConnect...
Since governments haven’t done a great deal - global carbon emissions are still increasing - perhaps private industry can facilitate people stepping in themselves.
OhmConnect announced that the company has concluded its first-ever MEGA Summer campaign, awarding more than $2.5 million to California residents in just three months for saving energy at critical energy-heavy usage times...
While many people in San Diego saw their energy bills skyrocket over the summer, some others were able to turn the heat into an advantage ...
A “Works With Nest” partnership targets PG&E territory to scale up the company’s unusual approach to third-party residential demand response.
Saving energy helps you save money on your utility bills. In California, it can help you make money too. The state increasingly relies on clean power. But there are still times when demand for energy is so high that ...
When a single homeowner decides to turn off her TV in the evening, the action barely registers on the electric grid. It’s one appliance in one home, out of millions. But when thousands of homeowners turn off their TVs...
Last week, San Diego Gas & Electric announced a first-of-its-kind contract for behavioral demand response -- a deal with Ohmconnect for 4.5 megawatts of energy flexibility, available within 20 minutes notice...
A new company is doing more than just monitoring electricity use. It's making tracking your electrical data fun. Steve Reed of San Diego says he signed up for free with OhmConnect. He was eager to see ...
California’s groundbreaking test of distributed energy resources (DERs) as aggregated grid assets continues -- and this time, the rewards and the responsibilities are even greater...
Could you unplug for one hour? No TV. No computer. Nothing.It might sound ridiculous, but many of us spend our entire day in front of a screen and studies show we’re suffering as a result.
Not many people would be opposed to saving money especially when it’s as easy as flipping a light switch.That’s basically all California residents have to do to earn up to $300 a year for reducing their electricity usage. According to The Penny Hoarder...
The Sierra Club and OhmConnect announced a partnership on February 16th that offsets energy customers in several parts of California...
Schneider Electric and OhmConnect are teaming up on an innovative demand response program that will allow residences to be aggregated and bid into the California ISO market without any connection to a utility...
Now a new pilot project being conducted by grid giant Schneider Electric and startup Ohmconnect is seeking to overcome these barriers. Under the pilot, customers of California’s big three utilities can apply...
Remember the 1990s visions of the future? Those first incantations of the sweeping “smart city,” so technologically utopian and Tomorrowland-ish in design? The concept and solutions were pitched by tech titans like IBM and Cisco...
As people around the world celebrate Earth Day on April 22, there is a growing number of people in California earning money for the energy they’re saving on almost any given day.
There’s no shortage of apps and smart thermostats out there to help you figure out your energy use and cut wasteful consumption. But what if you can do that and raise money for a good cause?
Last year, we covered how California utility regulators and grid operators are rewriting the rules for demand response -- the practice of reducing energy use in homes and businesses to meet grid needs...That’s also the opportunity being targeted by Ohmconnect, the San Francisco-based startup that’s aggregated several thousand households in PG&E territory into its energy efficiency and demand management platform.
Maybe you've heard of smart homes, where devices and appliances are connected so they can "talk" to each other. Well, they're getting smarter, and greener. Imagine: it's around 6pm, and people are arriving home from work. Everybody turns on their lights, stoves, and heating or air conditioning all at once, placing demand on the grid...
Maybe you've heard of smart homes, where devices and appliances are connected so they can "talk" to each other. Well, they're getting smarter, and greener. Imagine: it's around 6pm, and people are arriving home from work. Everybody turns on their lights, stoves, and heating or air conditioning all at once, placing demand on the grid...
Ohmconnect’s CMO and co-founder Curtis Tongue was drawn to energy after starting his career in advertising and design. He combined his consumer engagement background with his co-founder Matt Duesterberg’s deep understanding of electricity markets...
I am most excited about a concept called OhmConnect (OhmConnect.com). It’s a great example of how a startup can solve a major inefficiency in an existing market...
In the United States, power suppliers underestimate electricity consumption around 1% of the time, which means they have to switch on ‘peaker plants’ – generally natural gas-fired turbines, plus some oil-fired equipment – which are run only to meet peak demand...
Ohmconnect is a web service that helps consumers reduce their electricity demand during peak hours. Using a program called Ohmhour, Ohmconnect actually pays energy consumers for reducing their energy usage. In his pitch, Duesterberg told a story of a woman...
Today's call-ahead, manual demand response programs are better than nothing, but a far cry from the automated demand response we should have. Only when the system talks directly to smart thermostats and smart devices can we get the split-second response...
Ohmconnect alerts you when dirty, expensive power plants switch on nearby and pays you for reducing your electricity use...
Ohmconnect alerts you when dirty, expensive power plants switch on nearby and pays you for reducing your electricity use...
Ohmconnect helps manage the city’s power needs by paying people to reduce their electricity use so that the most inefficient power plants don’t have to supply more power....
Integrating IoT with the smart grid enables new market and grid services not possible in the past. By coordinating a fleet of smart devices, Ohmconnect has built virtual power plants that bid into energy markets as actual generation.
Ohmconnect is the platform that pays you to save on your own electricity bills. You heard that correctly: they pay you to save money! Taking advantage of the IoT...
When the electric grid can't meet demand—perhaps because you've been running the A/C too long, or a wind farm isn't performing fully—managers turn to "peaker" stations...
It might be hard to wrap your head around, but a Bay Area company is aiming to turn your home into a "virtual powerplant" -- no solar panels required. San Francisco-based Ohmconnect has created an online service to help people cash in...
That’s the central question behind many cleantech industry players and that’s why the Department of Energy launched the American Energy Data Challenge. We interviewed...
Make money by turning down your electricity usage during peak hours. That’s the pitch fromOhmconnect. The service alerts you when the power grid is under strain. When that happens...
For all the emphasis placed on clean energy, you might expect that a significant dent’s been made in humanity’s carbon dioxide emissions — emissions that are directly linked to warming temperatures on Earth, according to the overwhelming majority of climate scientists....
After a combination of federal and state initiatives, as well as a far-reaching rollout of smart meters, home energy data in California has finally emerged as a platform for innovation and entrepreneurs. New startups working with energy data...
