Norcross, Georgia-based Comverge announced on January 23 that the company has recently contracted to roll out an integrated demand response and energy efficiency program to small and medium businesses (SMBs) for one of the top five largest U.S. investor-owned utilities.
The program is designed to better engage commercial customers to help improve customer satisfaction scores, while also leveraging an untapped load resource.
Businesses that enroll in the program will receive installed, Wi-Fi-connected smart thermostats and software that enables them to take greater control of their energy usage and save money on their energy bills. Participants can also choose to have a load control switch installed and only receive the demand response program incentives.
"While representing approximately 35 percent of utility load, the SMB customer has been underrepresented when it comes to participation in demand-side management programs," Comverge CEO Dave Neal, adding, "We are seeing strong interest across the industry to deploy new products and services that help these customers save on energy, while also providing demand response capacity to the utility.
“Our success recruiting and engaging more than 45,000 SMB customers in demand response programs,” Neal continued, “gives us unique advantage in understanding how to successfully serve this important customer segment."
In related news, just a week ago, Comverge announced that the company had clinched a ten-year contract extension with Entergy Arkansas for continued delivery of its Summer Advantage residential demand response program. Launched in 2012, the Entergy Arkansas Summer Advantage program was originally designed to serve as a virtual power plant of 15 MW of capacity, but has since grown to 35 MW. The program provides an opportunity for Entergy Arkansas to engage their residential customers and help them save on energy bills.