Consert, Inc. Announces Job Creation, Community Involvement and Impressive Results During News Briefing
Photo (L to R): Commissioner Rolando Pablos, PUCT; Sheryl Sculley, city manager of San Antonio; Doyle Beneby, CEO and President of CPS Energy; and Jack Roberts, CEO and President of Consert, Inc. at the Consert news briefing.
SAN ANTONIO – Consert, Inc., the intelligent energy management company that relocated its headquarters to San Antonio six months ago, continues to make an impact on the community and the industry.
In a news briefing with CPS Energy CEO and President Doyle Beneby and Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) Commissioner Rolando Pablos, Consert CEO and President Jack Roberts updated attendees on the progress the company has made since moving to San Antonio.
“We believe our successful move and developmental achievements have fulfilled the vision of the Mayor, the City and CPS Energy,” said Roberts. “Together, we can help San Antonio, and the rest of the country, save money and save the planet.”
In Texas, in particular, where Trip Doggett, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), has expressed concern about the dwindling reserves they’ll face by 2013, Consert is working with ERCOT to become a CLR (controllable load resource). Roberts points out that with the company’s increased participation in Texas, Consert can help ERCOT address shortfalls and solve the issue.
How does it work? According to combined results of three utilities in Texas, including CPS, from 3 to 7 p.m. from June through September 2011, Consert measured an hourly average of 3 kW of HVAC demand per house during peaks as duty cycles ranged from 48 percent at 90 degrees to 82 percent at 110 degrees. Over the course of the CPS pilot, Consert controlled devices equaled 57 percent of total residential consumption during peak times. During a typical control event, even with opt-outs increasing over time, almost 100 percent of controlled load can be curtailed for over an hour and 60+ percent can be curtailed for more than three hours. This means as few as 350 homes could be aggregated to the equivalent of roughly 1 MW.
“Working with CPS, we will reduce 250 megawatts of peak demand over the next four years using Consert’s Virtual Peak PlantTM software,” said Roberts. “We are making a difference in Texas.”
During the Consert briefing Roberts announced the following:
- The hiring of 32 new employees and the relocation of 20 more from the former headquarters in Raleigh. Ten to 20 more employees will be hired in the next six months with the goal of 150 employees in San Antonio by 2014.
- Consert occupies 13,000 square feet with an additional 5,000 square feet committed for future growth.
- The company has joined several chambers of commerce, sponsored events in the community and established a partnership with the University of Texas San Antonio.
- Version 3.1 of Consert’s software was released, including an improved user interface that is compatible with mobile devices, and simplified setup wizard.
- The Bravo Series was launched as the next generation of hardware with enhanced device controller and gateway.
- Positive independent survey results from other pilot projects in Texas, which show 100 percent participant satisfaction with the Consert Solution and pilot implementations in five additional states.
- The plan is to exceed the initial goal of 140,000 installations with CPS Energy over the next three years.
“We also were delighted to hear of the CPS and OCI agreement,” Roberts added. “It is our belief that Consert can create reliable regulating reserves to address the intermittency of solar. The scale of the Consert plan is essential to the scale of the solar plan.”
Consert converts electric consumption in homes and small businesses into cost-effective, clean sources of capacity and energy reserves for utilities. The Consert load management solution is based on real-time, wireless technology which allows participants to conserve energy using a web-based, home area network. Consert utilizes the Verizon Wireless 3G and 4G LTE networks to provide real-time communication to the Consert data center. This highly secure network delivers fast data speeds and increased efficiencies for utilities.
Click here to view:
- Consert news briefing comments from Doyle Beneby, President and CEO of CPS
- PUCT Commissioner Rolando Pablos
- Consert news briefing comments from Jack Roberts, President and CEO of Consert
About Consert Inc.
Consert Inc. is an intelligent load management technology company. Consert’s Virtual Peak PlantTM load management system is the only solution proven to provide reliable, real-time, fully-integrated load management through the pairing of utility and consumer offerings. A demonstration of the application as used by a residential consumer can be viewed at http://bit.ly/ConsertAtHome. Consert is a partner with Hometown Connections and Texas Electric Cooperatives. For more information, visit Consert.com. Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/consert. Follow us on Twitter @Consert Inc.