Homeowners and businesses can reduce their electricity usage and demand through a University of Ottawa-developed system. Working with Hydro Ottawa Limited, the researchers created the Grid Edge Active Transactional Demand Response (GREAT-DR) project. The project allows homeowners and businesses to not only reduce their electricity usage and demand, but also gain more control and flexibility over the management of their energy, saving money and finding efficiencies.
The advanced smart technology, which is currently being offered as a trial program through Hydro Ottawa, enables a customer’s electricity demand and generation to seamlessly interact in real-time with the electrical grid.
As the public utility explains, “the GREAT-DR platform will decentralize and largely automate demand response and transactive energy right through to the grid edge – where a customer connects their devices to the electrical grid. This will give customers more control over their electricity usage.”
