Tendril, a company specializing in software solutions that help utilities engage in new programs with their customers, recently announced a new software solution called Orchestrated Energy. This cloud-based solution enables utilities and other energy providers to simultaneously optimize system operation and customer comfort.
Tendril’s recent projects involving engagements with utilities include major Investor-owned utility customers such as Duke Energy, NV Energy, AEP and Central Maine Power, as well as other utilities (e.g. Newfoundland Power) and retail marketing companies and energy companies, including Think Energy, Sunpower, and North American Power.
Tendril is taking a device-agnostic approach with its platform for Orchestrated Energy.
Being device-agnostic is important, since there are dozens of competing providers of various Home Area Networks (HAN) devices—not only for thermostats, but also for different in-home displays, load control switches, and gateways, which run on different firmware and often involve different meter configurations. Orchestrated Energy will soon expand from controlling smart thermostats to co-optimizing other Distributed Energy Resources (DERS), like water heaters, solar systems and electric vehicles, making it the first truly comprehensive home energy management platform.
Tendril field trials during the summer of 2016 for Orchestrated Energy included participation from ecobee , and additional smart thermostat partnerships have been formed with Honeywell and Energate, meaning Orchestrated Energy can connect to and control a range of additional devices.
Orchestrated Energy is the final piece of a vision we have been pursuing for more than a decade. We’ve introduced leading solutions that allow our utility partners to provide a seamless multi-channel consumer experience, and now continuously manage demand to both solve today’s network challenges and allow energy providers to play a central role in the connected home. With Orchestrated Energy, we have rationalized the grid edge and made it work for all ecosystem players so the energy industry can define its own future.
— Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril
“As Tendril’s pilot smart thermostat partner, we think the peak demand modeling within Orchestrated Energy is a great innovation available to utilities,” said Chris Carradine, Executive Vice President at ecobee. “We are excited to continue to work with companies like Tendril who see the untapped potential that exists in leveraging smart thermostats to maintain grid stability while keeping customers comfortable.”
In pilot programs with some of the largest utilities in North America, Tendril Orchestrated Energy reduced HVAC peak load by up to 50 percent and lowered energy consumption from cooling by up to 20 percent. The solution calculates a home’s thermal mass, predicts consumer behavior and integrates with connected devices, to create a unique daily dispatch schedule for every home.
