If you were one of the unlucky 250,000 AEP residents that lost electricity during the June 14th-16th forced outages, you were probably left wondering if there isn’t anything AEP can do to avoid such drastic, dangerous measures.
If you are a member of the Public Utility Commission of Ohio (PUCO) or an Ohio legislator, you were probably left wondering what can be done to help AEP and Ohio utilities to avoid forced outages in the future.
And if you’re AEP, you’re not happy about the forced outages and are actively working on ways to avoid them ever needing to happen again.
AEP’s presentation and future plans support the need for increased load control to balance their grid, as they “discuss and review enhanced reliability and resilience policies as well as the impacts of climate change and extreme weather.”
But there is a solution now, and it is right here in Ohio. There is a Columbus-based company that uses Ohio-manufactured technology to quickly and efficiently shed load in energy events, leading to fewer forced outages and without customer impact; Armada Power.
At Armada Power we make and install smart management controllers for hot water heaters that allow us to power them down when needed to help prevent forced outages. We take control of approximately 17% of residential load with our patented water heater control technology. We are able to shed and manage that load around grid constraints, shortening or completely eliminating the need for rolling blackouts. All while maintaining customer comfort so that end users won’t be able to detect that an event has occurred.
Load shedding is just one way in which Armada Power can help AEP and its customers avoid forced outages and enjoy increased reliability. Our comprehensive solution also provides a low-cost path for renewables firming and integration, fast-frequency regulation, power restoration support, time-of-use optimization, local voltage response, EV load control, and more.
We are all committed to providing Ohioans with the best, most reliable energy, so why not work together to do just that? There is an Ohio invented, manufactured, and headquartered technology AEP can use to reduce grid strain on the hottest days when people need power the most. We are here to help.
