Shifted Energy to Equip 2,400 Water Heaters in Hawaii with Grid-Interactive Technology to Create Virtual Power Plant
HONOLULU — Shifted Energy has signed an agreement to incorporate its grid-interactive water heaters (GIWH) into Hawaiian Electric Co.’s emerging grid services market as part of a Grid Services Purchase Agreement led by Open Access Technology International Inc. (OATI), a provider of software-as-a-service for grid operations in North America.
Shifted Energy will install up to 2,400 GIWH systems across Oahu and Maui with a specific focus on hard-to-reach customers including low- and moderate-income, apartment dwellers, and renter communities. Under a five-year contract beginning in 2020, the combined GIWH systems will function as a 2.5-megawatt virtual power plant (VPP), making it one of the largest competitively procured GIWH deployments in the world. The units will respond in aggregate to signals from Hawaiian Electric to deliver key ancillary services, such as fast-frequency response, grid capacity increase and decrease – providing valuable services to the grid that will reward participants while enabling greater use of renewable energy.