End Use Load Flexibility
Catalyzing innovation and Market Transformation to support a more flexible and resilient energy system.
Catalyzing Innovation for a Flexible Energy Future
Northwest utilities are navigating significant challenges to maintain a safe, reliable, and affordable electrical grid amidst evolving demands. Increasing temperature extremes are driving rising peak demand in both summer and winter, while overall load growth is increasing in both the transportation and building sectors.
With this project, NEEA seeks to catalyze innovation and Market Transformation towards a more flexible and reliable energy system. The near-term goal is to expedite the integration of features that enable end-use load flexibility and gain insight into related opportunities. The project prioritizes opportunities focused on improving the efficiency, connectivity, and controllability of end-use devices and leveraging NEEA’s existing market relationships and product development expertise, research and analytics capabilities, and role as a regional convenor.
Balancing Resources and Planning for the Future
The retirement of emitting resources like coal plants cannot yet be fully offset by intermittent resources such as wind and solar, especially with utility-scale storage still in its early stages. Additionally, hydropower, which supplies about 50% of the region’s energy, is threatened by reduced snowpack and drought conditions. These factors are impacting grid reliability and increasing energy costs for all customers.
The 2021 Northwest Power Plan anticipates up to 3,500 MW of additional coal plant retirements by 2029. To address this, the region is set to add 3,500 MW of renewable resources by 2027. However, renewable resources with variable generation cannot fully replace the firm capacity of retired coal plants on a one-to-one basis. Flexible end-use load resources are essential for managing peak load reduction and filling the expanding capacity gap by meeting system peaks and providing greater load control flexibility.
Embracing Load Flexibility to Drive Market Transformation
The key to overcoming these challenges lies in aligning energy demand with availability through load flexibility. Load Flexibility, defined as the ability of electricity customers to adjust their energy usage to match the supply of electricity, is crucial for mitigating the negative impacts on the Northwest’s energy system.
As a Market Transformation organization with a 30-year history of delivering permanent market change, the alliance can play an important role in helping the region accelerate adoption of new end-use technologies that enable more flexible, efficient operation of the electric system and increased integration of renewable energy. By pooling resources and working together as an alliance, the Northwest can:
- Mitigate the cost and risks of individual utility load flexibility efforts.
- Aggregate influence with global market actors and influence the national supply chain.
- Provide economies of scale.
Paving the Way for Energy Innovation
Recent Developments and Future Direction
Beginning in January 2023, NEEA convened regional End-Use Load Flexibility discussions to gauge regional interest in a collaborative end-use load flexibility effort. With the support of 10 Northwest utilties, NEEA developed and launched the 2024-2025 End-Use Load Flexibility Project to explore Market Transformation opportunities to enhance the region’s capacity to manage electric loads.
With this project, NEEA seeks to catalyze innovation and Market Transformation towards a more flexible and reliable energy system. The near-term goal is to expedite the integration of features that enable end-use load flexibility and gain insight into related opportunities. Although the initial focus will be on residential end-use technologies, future activities may extend to commercial/non-residential end-use applications.
Developing the Next Generation of Energy Solutions
Results and learnings from the project are informing development of a longer-term End-Use Load Flexibility Market Transformation portfolio projected to begin in 2026. This portfolio aims to build on the initial successes and expand the scope of load flexibility initiatives to ensure a more resilient energy future for the Northwest.
Current Project Participants
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End Use Load Research Project
Funded by regional utilities and government agencies, the EULR project aims to support the region’s understanding of electricity usage and how changes in electric appliances, heating, cooling, water heating, and new uses like LED lighting and electric vehicles impact load growth.
Market Transformation Portfolio
NEEA manages a diversified portfolio of Market Transformation initiatives to accelerate the adoption of energy efficiency products, services and practices that provide efficient and affordable products to Northwest customers.