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As project partner of the $200M grant awarded to PECO, Viridity Energy will support the implementation of smart grid technologies

Conshohocken, PA - Viridity Energy, a virtual power generation company that transforms large energy consumers into 24/7 virtual power plants, issued a statement around today's visit by U.S. Secretary of Energy Chu to PECO headquarters following Tuesday's U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announcement of smart grid investment grant awards via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

As part of the $200M grant awarded to PECO for "integrating and crosscutting across different ‘smart' components of the smart grid," Viridity Energy as a project partner will receive $1.179M to support the implementation of smart grid technologies through its partnership with Drexel University. Viridity will couple Siemens' DEMS (decentralized energy management system) with its VPower™ system on the Drexel campus for forecasting and optimization to deliver solutions and services for the management and bidding of controllable load and customer-owned generation and storage resources into energy markets, including capacity, day-ahead, real-time and ancillary markets.

Through the stimulus award, PECO will deploy smart meters to its customers, upgrade communication infrastructure to support a smart meter network, install seven "intelligent" substations, and accelerate deployment of more reliable and secure smart grid technologies that will reduce peak energy load and increase cost savings. As a grant project partner, Viridity Energy will advance its collaboration with Drexel University and Siemens to demonstrate how dynamic load optimization can be used to help PECO create virtual energy generation. The Drexel University-Viridity Energy project will showcase the implementation of a two-way interface using secure communication channels between the end-users' resources and the grid through Viridity's VPower™ System, which will ultimately enable PECO customers to manage power costs while bringing greater reliability to the energy grid.

"Viridity Energy is honored to be a joint recipient of this week's smart grid investment grants, and we applaud President Obama, Secretary Chu, the DOE and Congress for recognizing the importance of smart grid innovations. In addition, we commend PECO for the strong leadership it has shown in advancing innovative energy solutions for its customers throughout Pennsylvania, and we are pleased to support this initiative," said Audrey Zibelman, President and CEO of Viridity Energy. "Our inclusion in this round of smart grid stimulus funding through PECO is a major milestone for our company and it underscores the viability our VPower™ System in advancing the next generation of smart grid solutions. As part of this grant funding, we look forward to continuing our partnership with Drexel University and Siemens to demonstrate the value of integrating both distributed resources and controllable load onto the electric grid as predictable, reliable resources."

Viridity's VPower™ System provides customers with access to an advanced software platform that evaluates the customer's overall energy load and optimizes their energy usage on a 24/7 basis. The goal is to integrate and aggregate customers' load, storage and on-site generation resources into virtual generation that can be used as a reliable resource in the wholesale energy markets and on the grid. With the VPower™ System, building owners are able to continuously and automatically optimize their systems with the assistance of day-ahead schedules and real time re-optimization. VPower enhances economic value of building resources by increasing the amount of hours that the owner can achieve savings and revenues from the power markets.

SOURCE: Viridity Energy