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Company Will Lead Project Funded by California Energy Commission BRIDGE Program
Vermont Business Magazine Packetized Energy, a developer of software systems and smart devices based in Burlington, will receive $2 million in prime contractor funding from the California Energy Commission under their BRIDGE (Bringing Rapid Innovation Development to Green Energy) program. The award will fund deployment and connection of 7,000 new and existing smart energy devices to Packetized Energy’s Nimble platform, enabling a combined 4 megawatts (MW) of grid flexibility. The project will create one of the largest distributed energy resource (DER) aggregation networks from residential devices in California.
With its project partners, Packetized Energy will be able to provide valuable energy flexibility through the state’s grid operator (California ISO), in a way that will go beyond conventional demand response programs. In addition to peak load reduction to help eliminate the need for new fossil fuel power plants, the resulting “virtual battery” will demonstrate how aggregated smart devices can actively balance the variability of renewable energy, reduce grid-based carbon emissions, and lower system-level energy costs through wholesale price arbitrage. The project will also show how policy changes resulting from FERC Order 2222, which enables DER aggregators to compete in organized wholesale electric markets, will create new opportunities to solve grid problems through customer-owned devices.