London Hydro OpenADR Automated Demand Response Cuts Peak Demand 47%

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London Hydro OpenADR Automated Demand Response Cuts Peak Demand 47%

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London Hydro is a Local Distribution Company that services the city of London, Ontario, Canada. With a peak load of 719 megawatts, they deliver electricity to over 159,040 customers. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) funded a pilot program with London Hydro as part of its ongoing RPP roadmap to evaluate the impacts of Time-of-Use rates, real-time electricity usage information, and automated demand response using IoT technology. London Hydro enrolled 1,793 of its customers in the pilot. All participants were provided with Rainforest's EAGLE-200 Energy Gateway, which provided real-time data from the home meter. The meter data was streamed live through the participants' internet to London Hydro's back office server and presented to users in real time through Trickl, a mobile app developed by London Hydro. Selected homes had load control switches installed at the electrical panel to control larger loads, with smart plugs for smaller loads. These control devices communicated with the EAGLE-200 gateway using Zigbee wireless protocols. After enrollment and equipment installation, the pilot went live on May 1, 2018 and ran for one year. In all, 36 peak events were declared by the OEB, each lasting one hour, sometime between 5pm and 8pm. Participants equipped with IoT technology that automatically curtailed loads during peak events saw dramatic drops of up to 47% in electrical demand during peak events, with the effect most pronounced on hot summer days — indicating that cooling was the most significant load. In fact, there was very little effect during winter events since most participants used natural gas for heating. In addition to the demand response effect, there was also an energy conservation effect: participants with Rainforest ADR and real-time feedback technology installed reduced their daily summer On-Peak consumption by 5%, while participants with feedback only saved 2%.