VF Holding’s Post

Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting the fifth webinar of the Smart Talks with Jovan program, sponsored by VF Holding. This time, my guests, Istvan Papp, Boris Turha, and Tomaž Dostal, shared their wealth of knowledge and provided exceptional insights into the topic of Smart Energy Management in Households. During the webinar, we discussed various crucial topics, such as the opportunities available to distribution companies, the autonomy of HEMS, strategies for achieving standardization and flexibility, and much more, with the goal of maximizing benefits for consumers. The key question we now face is - Should EU bring new initiatives in which it would push the implementation of HEMS? To listen to the entire discussion, watch the webinar on YouTube through the link below and share your thoughts in the comments. https://lnkd.in/dZk43JsT

🌱 #Customers adapting their energy usage plays a key role in enabling #flexibility. However, lower-income households often miss out on the benefits. 🏡 An interesting study on strategies to make demand-side flexibility #inclusive, ensuring everyone can access clean energy benefits without financial strain. 💡 Something we'll take away in our work with DESNZ on the Flexibility Markets Unlocked programme. Let's bridge the gap and create a more #equitable #energytransition! 🌍 #CleanEnergy #DemandFlexibility #InclusiveTransition

With solar dropping in cost, and utility rates increasing, more and more people are seeing how much they can get out of their solar systems. This has cause new compensation rules for solar to which the worst case is: “no you can’t export power on the grid”. This “worst case” is really just a line in the sand challenge from monopoly utilities for ratepayers “your generation, usage, and storage must be cheaper than what I sell you”. This is where the newest solutions come in. With DC PV able to charge your car battery with DC and run a heat pump from DC, you can effectively ERASE your car and your home heating from the grid, while still having an expensive grid backup for the times your lower cost solar system isn’t producing more energy than you can use and store. And while net metering is convenient and lowers the cost of energy for your neighbors by reducing peak demand on the grid caused by AC units, if a utility wants to eliminate net metering and “cut off one’s nose to spite their face”, it simplifies the economics of a whole behind the meter energy system design instead of a simple solar design. By removing the utility as an offtaker for solar, solar providers must build their customer’s load around their solar systems. While originally complex, we are seeing product designers make it much simpler, by utilizing free oversized storage. A home battery it typically sized to ~13kWh which is roughly the same amount of energy a 80 gallon hot water heater can store. Also an electric vehicle is 5x that size. So between these two already owned devices (a car and a hot water heater), solar can be dumped into your existing storage to provide all the energy services you require. And the best part is that you are just reducing your usage from the utility to the times it’s just too hard to match solar and consumption. And when that is accomplished and people are comfortable with how they have gone months without needing the utility, they will unteather, much like we did with our desktop computers for laptops, and landlines for cell phones. Our cars and homes working together to balance our needs. Resilient Energy: Step 1) Solar EV Heat Pumps Step 2) Utility power Step 3) Stationary Battery generator Step 4) Over the road fuel delivery for generator Step 5) Vehicle to Home electricity delivery Most people are afraid of what they have to give up with a transition. But in this case you are merely adding in addition layers of security, while also reducing costs.

Fascinating stuff from Jan Rosenow and colleagues - in one sense it’s exciting to be living through the most profound energy transition in 200 years However, we’ve left it so late that we really are in a disquieting race- a race between the risk of climate and ecosystems collapse and the enormous benefits a green economy might bring …. That said, I draw huge encouragement from the innovation now being unleashed. #climatechange #climatecrisis #energytransition #demandflexibility

the real potential of smart networks begins at home

It is important to get this capacity into the market quickly to provide more tools to help manage the grid at a 90% lower cost to consumers than the preferred expensive approach.

Join @Donald McPhail and @Sadia Raveendran for a webinar addressing the pressing issues of grid strain among more extreme weather and the increasing adoption of DERs. Discover how @Uplight and @AutoGrid are revolutionizing flexible load management, offering a unified platform to address these challenges effectively. Learn how utilities and other organizations can enroll more customers, expand grid-connected devices, and diversify demand management program options to enhance reliability and flexibility. Register now and stay ahead in the evolving energy landscape: https://lnkd.in/epR4xQm7 #webinar #GridModernization #CleanEnergyTransition #vpps

Great Article by my colleague Rajiv Dabir on Managed (EV) Charging or Smart Charging. Lots of variables go into deciding the "optimal" time to charge an individual EV, much less EVs in aggregate. Incentives and a 'guiding hand' (e.g. software) are needed to help EV drivers individually manage their charging based on upcoming transportation plans (e.g. what minimum State of Charge needed vs. 80%) coupled with availability/cost/cleanliness of energy from either behind the meter sources (solar and/or batteries) vs. the grid power at any given interval of the day. All EV owners should be using Managed Charging Software like Optiwatt, which I've been very happy with.

The suddenly simple stuff of science-fiction. What are Virtual Power Plants? A collection of office and home based items like solar panels and batteries that can chip in collectively at peak times to make sure our national grids don't get overwhelmed. This would mean a lessened reliance on centralised power generation methods, many of which are still currently fossil fuel fired. Sounds almost like a no brainer but until now hasn't truly been at the forefront of most #NetZeroTransitions. RMI has now published a comprehensive guide-book on these intruguing new initiatives and how they can reduce local communities overall dependence on fossil-fuels. Highlighted among many other things in the thoughrough flipbook they write: 1. 70 VPPs currently operate across 25 US states and generate between 30-60mw 2. At appropriate scale VPPs could account for 20% of peak energy grid demand and save up to $10 billion 3. VPP schemes can compensate participants, potentially benefitting inviduals and organisations A fantastic read with points of pondering for all kinds of organisations. Perhaps a perfect opportunity for #SMEs with #Sustainable spaces/offices? You can find the full material here: https://lnkd.in/eyhrSrsb. Would your organisation like to see an incentivsed VPP program in the UK? Would options like this help accelerate your business' #NetZeroJourney? #NetZero #ClimateChange #RenewableEnergy #EnergyGrid #Business Net Zero Nation

See how Renew Home is quickly building a massive, sustainable power plant, through smart thermostats and beyond. The future of virtual power plants is here 😎 check out our position paper, available for download!