Renewable energy is upending the relationship between ratepayers and their utilities. It is moving the electricity grid away from dependence on large, top-down centralized power plants and into a new landscape of localized, distributed energy resources, where every ratepayer can play a role in grid services. That can be financially rewarding from the ratepayer’s perspective, and a new report from Deloitte underscores how utilities can benefit, too.
“Household energy use is transforming, placing utilities at the center of two important trends: decarbonization and customer affordability,” Deloitte summarizes. The firm also notes that a successful DER network can avoid costs associated with new transmission and distribution infrastructure, in addition to forestalling new fossil-fueled power plants.
“ADER is the aggregation of behind-the-meter energy devices and capabilities that can be called upon to accomplish an action, such as reducing energy consumption or providing more energy,” the University of Texas explains.UTA notes that utilities, utility commissions, independent system operators, aggregator providers, and retail electricity providers are among the stakeholders collaborating in the effort through the ADER task force.