by Shane Henson — December 17, 2012—Constellation, a competitive energy supplier offering electricity, natural gas, solar and renewable energy products and services to businesses across the United States and Canada, has launched what it says is the first Web service application to facilitate automated load response program participation.
Called VirtuWatt Link, the application allows a facility’s existing automation system to manage load curtailment automatically based upon energy market signals and pre-set scenarios—without the installation of redundant or proprietary building controls hardware, says Constellation. VirtuWatt Link provides comprehensive load response and security services, including: authentication access control, independent system operators (ISO) event dispatch notification and acknowledgement, and utility meter usage data.
VirtuWatt Link can be integrated to any energy management or controls system that utilizes Web services. Its architecture is designed to seamlessly handle demand response market signals and energy data from utilities and ISOs, and is built to accommodate developing demand response protocol standards, such as OpenADR 2.0., the company adds.
By reducing the upfront cost associated with load response automation, VirtuWatt Link enables a broader range of facility types and sizes to participate in a wider array of energy market programs. VirtuWatt Link is an extension of Constellation’s VirtuWatt energy management platform, which allows commercial and industrial customers to easily monitor energy usage in real time and schedule load curtailments for load response programs, the company says.
Constellation says that companies that offer a wide variety of energy management and automation solutions, from customer-specific to broad-in-scope, are already teaming up with Constellation to implement VirtuWatt Link as a pre-integrated, value-add option.
For example, during the beta release of the solution, Trane, a provider of energy efficiency heating, air conditioning and ventilation (HVAC) systems and building and contracting services, created a VirtuWatt Link adapter for its Tracer and TIS platforms, which is now live and supporting load response programs at Trane’s Texas facilities, says Constellation.
