Joule Assets announced on June 30 that it would enter the deregulated market served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) – which serves 24 million customers, representing 90 percent of the Loan Star State’s electric load – as a registered demand response provider. The three-year-old developer of energy reduction asset software, based in Bedford Hills, New York, plans to offer small commercial facilities using less than 100 kW electricity and the contractors that serve them a new source of revenue.
Triggered by recent legislation in Texas, Joule now will act as the qualified scheduling entity for a variety of small-to-midsize commercial sites across Texas – registering those facilities in demand response programs. “To date, the state's energy markets for demand response have been underutilized and are opportune for potential savings,” the company said.
Indeed, according to a recent analysis by the South-Central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource (SPEER), called the Smart Energy Roadmap for Texas, Texans would have saved over $200 million in electricity costs had more demand response been allowed to participate in the market on just five days during 2012-13.
To date, due to the heavy energy requirements of large commercial facilities, demand response in Texas has catered almost exclusively to sizeable sites – often supported by the biggest names in DR, including EnerNoc, Comverge and Constellation Energy. Demand response programs for small-to-midsize sites have been virtually nonexistent.
Now, Joule Assets said it will offer sized-to-fit demand response programs for these largely ignored commercial sites. "The challenge and opportunity that exists today in Texas is indicative of what we're seeing in every state," said Joule CEO Mike Gordon.
