Eversource and United Illuminating have launched Connecticut’s first Distributed Energy Resource (DER) market through the Piclo platform. This pioneering initiative aims to procure approximately 35MW of energy flexibility for the winter season of 2024/2025. It marks a significant milestone as New England’s first local grid flexibility market, offering new incentive opportunities for DER owners, operators, and aggregators, including electric vehicle charge point operators, battery developers, and residential or commercial load aggregators.
• Registration Opens: July 9th, 2024
• Introductory Webinar: July 17th, 2024
• Qualification Deadline: September 27th, 2024
• Bidding Period: October 7th to November 1st, 2024
• Visit the Piclo platform
• Watch the recorded webinar
• Read the webinar slides
Please find the FSP Agreement here.
Flex Providers will need to submit a signed or red-lined copy of the contract via the platform by September 27th.
Please reach out to support@picloflex.com for direct support on company and asset qualifications, and platform troubleshooting help. Reach out to flex-usa@piclo.energy for general questions about the program before registering on the platform.
• Visit the Piclo platform
• Watch the recorded webinar
• Read the webinar slides
A competition is the zone where the EDCs/utilities have identified a locational need with defined technical parameters. These are displayed on the Connecticut platform dashboard on the right panel and in the map itself. Each competition has an identified MW need, dispatch window times, and estimated dispatch event total number and duration.
Telematics from either the EVs or EV chargers is allowed. There is no preference between the two, but it is important that customers can only enroll one device for participation - either the EV or the EV charger, not both.
Availability is your payment for participating and being available to provide flexibility. You are paid on a $/MW/h basis. This is not performance-based. The calculation is the total of: [your $ bid] * [# of MWs in the portfolio you’re bidding] * [# of hours within the competition service windows you are available]
Utilization is your payment for being called on for specific events. You are paid on a $/MWh basis, averaged across the events called. This is performance-based. The calculation is the total of: [your $ bid] * [# of MWh energy that you have bid in for your asset portfolio] * [performance of asset portfolio on a percentage basis]
There are no penalties in this market. Utilization is paid out based on flat % performance, so there are no performance tranches. Availability does not have a performance factor tied to payment.
Performance is assessed at the portfolio-level, as long as customers with verified information (e.g., meter/asset ID) only are included in the portfolio. It does not matter which assets the flexibility is provided from, as long as they're in the nominated portfolio and fit within the competition area and parameters.
Performance is assessed, and payments are made to participants, after each month. Piclo will issue an invoice for the participant to submit to Eversource or UI for payment. Performance is not averaged across the whole season.
Total overperformance across each month is not compensated, but overperformance is allowed to make up for underperformance a) within events and b) across multiple events each month. For more detail:
a) The portfolio overperforms in one event but underperforms in another event in the same month. The performance is averaged across the events
b) The portfolio underperforms in hour 1 of a dispatch event but overperforms in hour 2 of the same dispatch event. The performance is averaged across both hours within the event.
There will be a maximum number of dispatches for each competition. There will be at least 1 dispatch for each competition during the season.
Energy use, net of export, will be calculated and compensated per the baseline methodology, as if it were a demand reduction. Please see the program manual for more information on the baseline methodology.
Hourly average basis.
At least hourly interval data, but at least 15-minute data is ideal to ensure uniform performance calculations across all participating assets.
Interval data originating from the asset or the meter can be used.
All asset types are eligible for participation, including but not limited to electric vehicles (EVs), smart thermostats, batteries, heat pumps, commercial and industrial load, and back-up power. However, greenhouse gas-emitting generation is currently excluded from participation.
There is a same-day adjustment two (2) hours before the start of the event. For example, if you are charging an EV or energy storage for 2 hours before the event, the baseline would zero out, so you would see the benefit in your performance calculation. The spirit and the idea here is to see grid benefits based on the EV/battery behaving differently than how you would normally operate it.
The deadline to register, complete a short company questionnaire, and upload your asset portfolio is September 27th
Bidding is then open from October 7th - November 1st
The dispatch season runs December 31, 2024 - February 28, 2025
Yes, participation in other programs is allowed, including but not limited to ConnectedSolutions, Energy Storage Solutions (ESS), and ISO-NE market products.
Yes, and we recommend that. The Piclo platform will automatically show your which competitions the assets are eligible for, making it easier for you.
10 - 50kW, depending on specific competition
Yes. You can also upload asset information and bid through our APIs.
At least 24 hours in advance, via email. You can leverage our APIs to automate event notifications as well
Yes, as always. We have a strict privacy policy and security protocols in place.
For this round of competitions, the EDCs have selected different criteria for bid selection:
Yes, please see below. As noted above, we recommend that you upload your entire portfolio, and the Piclo platform will automatically show which assets are eligible for each competition