Responsive Economic Dispatch: Reaching a New Milestone in Power

At NRG, we believe the future of energy lies in delivering reliable, sustainable, and customizable power solutions that enable our customers to successfully manage their energy use while maintaining a healthy grid.

As an energy provider, it might seem odd to some that we believe our most powerful resource and a key strategy we bring to our customers is curtailment, or the philosophy of “the cleanest and cheapest form of energy is the energy you do not use.”

Responsive Economic Dispatch (RED) is an NRG program built on this tenet of saving a megawatt. RED is a curtailment program that allows organizations to earn money by monetizing their load flexibility with little to no disruption to their everyday operations.

Enrolled customers are asked to reduce their energy use during peak events, often coinciding with forecasted or real-time grid scarcity. What makes RED unique from similar plans is customization, allowing commercial and industrial customers to enroll in the RED plan that best fits their needs, capabilities, and conditions.

RED in action

Though a variety of organizations have chosen to enroll in RED, the program has been incredibly beneficial for independent school districts (ISD) such as Fort Bend ISD, Dallas ISD, and Round Rock ISD. RED has not only enabled the districts to save on their electricity plans but also earn money by curtailing at their own pace with no risk to their budget.

Seeking additional ways to support the ISD’s annual budgets, NRG helped the districts assess and identify the best RED program solutions, all while keeping in mind their priorities and available resources.

To determine the appropriate fit, NRG considered several components:

• As a school district, these customers needed to avoid disrupting operations.
• Many of these districts were already familiar with curtailment programs, which simplified adoption and reduced the learning curve for enrolling in a new curtailment solution.
• The size of their footprints, the breadth of their properties, and the limited time many of these buildings are active during the day, meant the ISDs had flexible loads.
• The ISDs valued the voluntary nature of the program, allowing them to balance economics while maintaining daily operations.

Considering these factors, RED was the ideal fit for these customers. Through load curtailment, the program enables them to benefit from the energy savings while helping to keep the grid more reliable.

Over the past four years, several Texas school districts have received more than $670,000 from NRG through these programs. These savings can now be used to provide additional resources to students, such as books, special programs, construction, and renovation, without adding another expense to existing budgets.

Through the RED program, customers lower costs, optimize spending, and receive a tailored solution helping them get more from their power than ever before.

Beyond the customer

Though the RED program allows business customers to get more from their energy, it also benefits both NRG and the grid.

For NRG, volatility in the electricity market is always a risk for our business. We often serve as a cushion for our customers, filling in the gap between customers’ monthly bills and the high electricity rates that come with low generation or extreme weather. With the RED program in place, we reduce the need to generate more power when prices are high because when customers curtail, they reduce the generation needed.

The electric grid can only access a finite supply of electricity at any given time. The growth of renewables such as solar and wind farms has led to more intermittency on the grid. This intermittency leads to an increase in value for load flexibility. Programs like RED help optimize this supply by lowering unnecessary usage, allowing the available capacity to be deployed to areas of need during scarcity events.

RED exemplifies our desire to provide our customers with a unique experience that historically hasn’t existed in the energy industry. With programs like RED, NRG is ready to make the relationships between customers, power providers, and the grid mutually beneficial.

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NRG is a leading energy and home services company delivering innovative solutions that help people and businesses achieve their goals.