@inproceedings{36369,
  author = {Jingjing Liu and Mary Ann Piette and Bruce Nordman and Peter Grant and Sarah Josephine Smith and Richard E Brown and Joe Bourg and Felipe Godinez and Matt Fung and Mark S Martinez},
  title = {Assessing Customer Experience and Business Models around Price-to-Device Communication and Smart Control Pathways in CalFlexHub},
  abstract = {<p>California is facing three major challenges in electrical grid operation: renewable<br>overgeneration, steep evening ramping, and growing peak demand. The state has identified<br>dynamic retail price response as a key strategy evidenced by CPUC’s Dynamic Rates proceeding<br>and CEC’s Load Management Standards. Furthermore, the CEC launched a $16M “California<br>Load Flexibility Research and Deployment Hub (CalFlexHub)” administered by Berkeley Lab to<br>accelerate price-response flexible load technologies in buildings and EV charging.<br>There are more than 16 laboratory and field demonstration projects in CalFlexHub, each<br>demonstrating innovative automated price-response technologies. CalFlexHub tests various<br>pathways through which hourly price signals and triggered control commands are communicated<br>to load-flexible devices such as smart thermostats, heat pumps, water heaters, and EVs. We<br>identified seven unique communication and control pathways, which involve combinations of<br>third-party cloud, device OEM’s cloud, building central gateway, and local controller in between<br>the price server and the load-flexible devices.</p><p><br>It is important for utilities and policy makers to understand the long-term implications of<br>each pathway in designing future programs and creating related policies and mandates for market<br>transformation. We propose an evaluation framework including the following aspects:</p><ul><li>Functionality: connectivity and uptime, resilience, and optimization;</li><li>Customer experience: simplicity in setup, troubleshooting support, continuity,<br>customer choice, first cost, and ongoing cost;</li><li>Business model and scalability: advance interoperability, holistic solution, bridge<br>unique gap, customer base, and value streams and pricing structures.</li></ul><p><br>In this paper, we identify emerging business models associated with each communication<br>pathway and discuss their positive features and challenges from the above aspects.</p>},
  year = {2024},
  journal = {ACEEE Summer Study },
  month = {08/2024},
}