Third-Party Bring Your Own Thermostat Demand Response Pilot Evaluation
Project Number PGE DR 0217 Organization PG&E End-use Whole Building Sector Residential Project Year(s) 2016 - 2017Starting in the summer of 2016, PG&E partnered with three technology firms to develop the third-party bring your own thermostat (BYOT) pilot designed to leverage already installed smart thermostat technologies as a demand response (DR) resource that could be ramped up in a relatively short amount of time and provide load relief to specific capacity-constrained areas on the grid. The BYOT pilot was part of PG&E’s Demand Response Transmission and Distribution pilot and co funded by the Emerging Technologies (DRET) program. Pilot participants were recruited by the three vendors within eight PG&E substation footprints deemed to have local capacity constraints. Customers were offered varying financial incentives by the thermostat manufacturers in exchange for allowing their thermostat to be temporarily setback on event days. This evaluation documents the program design and implementation by each of the three vendors, and provides load impact estimates across the four events that took place in 2016.