Earn money while fighting climate change
As renewable energy sources become widespread, the incentive to avoid energy usage peaks increases. Higher than normal consumption, or periods of low renewable energy production, can overwhelm the energy grid. Previously, the solution required expanding production and distribution capacity or the usage of expensive and non-renewable energy sources.
We propose a cheaper, more efficient and cleaner alternative. Energy producing companies prefer offering incentives for customers to reduce their energy consumption, and up until now, this has been realized with blanket price increases. Instead, we offer the possibility for consumers to be paid directly to reduce energy usage.
Demand response strategies
Small adjustments in the timing of how we consume energy, can avoid overwhelming the grid. There are two main strategies used to achieve this:
- Load shifting is focused on optimizing the energy usage into more efficient timeslots. An example could be heating up a building at night, when energy is cheaper and the grid is not overwhelmed, to use it as a battery and reduce energy consumption during the day.
- Peak shaving consists of a direct reduction of energy consumption during peak usage. For example, people shutting down their computers during certain periods of the day.
At GEM, we choose to further differentiate between preload and postload, allowing for increased energy usage before and after the peak, respectively.