The announcement comes as demand response in California continues evolving and becomes more integrated with other resources into the California Independent System Operator's (CAISO) markets.
Jennifer Chamberlin, CPower's Executive Director for California, has more than 15 years of experience in the Golden State's energy industry and believes CPower is positioned to help the state achieve its clean energy and grid reliability goals with the DRAM program while helping organizations earn revenue through curtailment.
"The DRAM Pilot is an exciting way for customers to participate directly in the CAISO markets," Chamberlin said. "Our customers offer load curtailment that can be used to meet grid needs instead of turning on a power plant, helping to support the CAISO grid with a carbon-free resource attained by allowing customers to respond to market prices and reduce energy consumption when the system needs it most."
DRAM was created in 2014 under the guidance of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in an effort to harmonize utility-based reliability demand response with CAISO, the state's grid operator. The program seeks to allow CAISO to add reliable demand response resources to areas of California where electric reliability may be at risk.
Launched in 2015 and now in its third year, the DRAM is a pay-as-bid pilot in which California's investor-owned utilities (IOUs) seek monthly demand response system capacity, local capacity, and flexible capacity for January to December.
A leading curtailment service provider (CSP) in California, CPower has played a significant role in helping DRAM's capacity volume triple from its first delivery year in 2016 to its third in 2018. The 2018 and 2019 delivery years of the program come as the popular Aggregator Managed Portfolio utility-based demand response program ends in October 2017.
"CPower is excited to have this opportunity to help expand the emerging DRAM program," Chamberlin added. "By working with SCE to bring reliable demand response resources directly into the CAISO market, we can help California achieve the goal of a reliable, clean energy future."
