Smart Solutions for a Smarter Grid

ENBALA Power - The Challenge

Regional Independent Electricity System Operators (ISOs) must maintain a continuous balance between market demand and generation supply to ensure all electricity users have a reliable supply of electricity.

Watch the ENBALA video to learn more: click here

ISOs have traditionally maintained this balance through the procurement of reserved generation capacity from fast-responding suppliers, such as hydroelectric and gas turbine generators.

While this approach to achieving real time system balance has worked well in the past, there is a need for a new way:

• As larger amounts of intermittent generation (such as wind and solar) are added to the generation mix in response to increasing Renewable Portfolio Standards, there is now volatility in generation output and this creates additional stress to the necessary balance between real time supply and demand in the electricity system.
• As it becomes more difficult to approve and pay for new generation, transmission and distribution assets, there is an increased focus on optimizing the value of the electricity assets that already exist. This means finding ways to manage peaks, improve system load factors and have demand side assets participate in managing the electricity system.
• Electricity systems are one of the largest contributors to GHG emissions - helping electricity assets operate more efficiently reduces GHG emissions.
• FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) has been encouraging electricity system operators to find ways to encourage loads to participate in the management of the electricity system.

These services are called Regulation Services - and they are fundamental to the operation of a modern electricity system. The demand for Regulation Service is predicted to double in the next few years and North American ISOs are seeking new ways to balance generation and loads.

ENBALA Power - Smart Solutions for a Smarter Grid

The ENBALA Power Network manages the way electrical equipment uses power without impacting the efficiency of its process or its operational costs. This allows the regional electricity system operator (ISO) to leverage an array of adjustable loads as a single resource in managing the local distribution of electricity. This approach to system management increases system efficiency, reduces energy costs and cuts greenhouse gas emissions.

Using a secure, private communications platform, ENBALA connects large electricity users, to the ENBALA Power Network. This sophisticated smart grid platform understands and monitors the real time health, status and flexibility of participants. Network participants are able to specify constraints on flexibility, so that modulation of their power use has no impact on the effective operations of their equipment or processes.

By optimizing how this network of electricity users modulate their real time power usage, ENBALA delivers highly robust, reliable and resilient system balance and quality services to the electricity system operator.

Examples of facilities we connect to the Smart Grid:

• Water and wastewater (pumps)
• Cold storage (chillers)
• Foundries and steel mills (furnaces)
• Automotive assembly plants (HVAC)
• Water and wastewater (pumps)
• Cold storage (chillers)
• Foundries and steel mills (furnaces)
• Automotive assembly plants (HVAC)

Benefits to clients in the ENBALA Power Network:

• Financial rewards — Clients connected to the ENBALA Power Network are paid for the flexibility and response they can provide.
• Connect without charge — Qualification and connection to the ENBALA Power Network are completed at no cost to the client.
• Qualify on your terms — Through every step of the qualification and engineering process each client specifies their own constraints on flexibility for participation in the network.
• Do the right thing — Improved Ancillary Services allow the electricity grid to operate its generators more efficiently and this substantially reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Through participation in this modern network your operations are able to drive positive change in the electricity market.

ENBALA is currently running pilot programs for Regulation Services in Ontario (with the IESO), New England (with New England ISO), and the Pennsylvania–New Jersey–Maryland region (with the PJM).

To learn more about these programs and qualify your resource for participation, contact us: click here.

ENBALA - Power Point Presentation

Demonstrating Grid Balance through Demand-Side Loads

The ENBALA Power Network delivers Grid Balance by harnessing the flexibility of a network of adjustable loads, forming a virtual power plant powered by demand-side loads. The breakthrough innovation is the network effect of coordinating many loads in a robust, reliable and resilient way to deliver an aggregate response to the needs of the ISO/RTO. Because of the flexibility necessary to deliver Grid Balance, it’s impractical for a single load to respond on its own. Grid Balance relies on a network of loads that can respond.

The above slides demonstrate how the responses of individual loads contribute to Grid Balance as they are added to the network. As more loads are added to the ENBALA Power Network, the green line (ENBALA’s aggregated response) approaches the red line (the ISO/RTO signal). The ENBALA Power Network optimizes which demand-side loads to adjust, how much to adjust them and when to adjust them, based on their owner-defined operating constraints.