On July 12, 2017, Orison’s founder & CEO Eric Clifton presented at Intersolar North America, as a panelist in the session entitled “Smart Renewable Energy: Digitalisation, Energy Clouds, Big Data.”
Cloud Controlled Energy for a Smart Renewable World
Every day the need for an evolved electricity grid increases, while clean energy movements gain more ground. Simultaneously, there is a global trend towards the Internet of Things applications and smart homes and cities. We must more rapidly explore and embrace these promising new technologies to provide customer-control and protect and power the planet.
The intersection of renewables, storage and intelligence creates an entirely new industry — Renewable IoT Energy, derived from smart city, cloud-based, distributed energy storage. Smart, scalable, rapidly deployed energy storage is the solution to the challenges within the energy industry’s status quo, and can create a sustainable, connected, healthy and prosperous world.
Enables 100% Renewable Energy
The intermittent nature of solar and wind directly influences the grid’s capacity to meet peak demand. Additionally, since the grid is struggling to cope with the renewables it already has, it is difficult to introduce more renewables into our power supply, no matter how necessary it may be to do so. Energy storage is a means by which utilities, businesses, and individuals can pull together to enable our grid to house power from more renewable sources.
Energy storage units discharge power when the grid is at its weakest and most vulnerable state—during periods of high energy demand. Energy storage stabilizes the grid, smoothing the way for it to receive more power from renewable sources. Additionally, by integrating energy storage with solar panels on home and business owners can maximize their own savings and control. Smart energy storage units can include information on solar production in its real-time decision making algorithms to make the optimal charge/discharge schedule. Control is fully in the hands of the customer who can make executive decisions on scheduling via a mobile application on their smart device.
The more energy storage connected to our grid, the more renewables we can install, and the closer we become to a 100% renewable infrastructure.
Enables a Smart 2.0 Grid
Our 100-year old electricity grid is not equipped to handle our growing demand for energy, nor support the backflow of renewable energy sources that it experiences today. The Smart Grid movement is a technological shift towards computerizing the grid. By bringing the IoT trend to the energy world, everyone will experience increased efficiency, reliability, and control.
Cloud-based energy storage uses data, like utility rates, peak demand charges, weather, blackout alerts, and usage profiles to determine the optimal operating schedule for the device and make the grid more efficient. Through mobile applications, users can monitor their unit’s activities, track energy savings, edit the charge/discharge schedule, and receive blackout notifications all from their smart phone or tablet. Highly intelligent, network operated energy storage is the revolution needed to give customers control over their energy needs through internet connection.
Enables Reliable Power (Demand Response)
During peak hours of energy demand, utilities face two problems. First, they have to ramp up energy production in order to meet demand, typically through the increased burning of fossil fuels. Second, when a lot of people need a lot of energy all at the same time, the grid experiences an enormous amount of pressure, and when the grid cannot cope with the pressure, it shuts down, resulting in frequent blackouts.
Energy storage is a solution that can help utilities mitigate, if not eradicate, the damage done to the environment and grid infrastructure while meeting energy demand. By storing electricity when people are not using as much, and then discharging power when electricity is in high demand, energy storage eases pressure on the grid. As a result, utilities do not have to ramp up production via fossil fuels, and the grid does not break under the strain of demand. Through energy storage, the grid is healthier, and everyone has reliable power.
The time for consistent, greener, and smarter energy is now. Every technology, in every sphere, is needed to achieve the sustainable and efficient energy future we need and desire.
At Orison, we believe that our cloud-operated, self-installable, energy storage solution can enable reliable power as well as both 100% renewable energy and smart grid infrastructures for a smart energy world.
