COLLINSVILLE, Ill. and TORONTO, March 28, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As part of its commitment to innovation and building a smarter, clean energy infrastructure, Ameren Corporation and Opus One Solutions announced today that together they will be working to test a transactive energy marketplace (TEM) and evaluate the use of Blockchain ledger systems. The marketplace will build on one of the most technologically advanced utility-scale microgrids in North America and Opus One’s GridOS® platform.
Ameren is a diversified regional electric and gas utility that serves for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois subsidiaries. The TEM will be located at Ameren Illinois' award-winning Technology Applications Center (TAC) in Illinois - one of the only utility-scale microgrids in the nation capable of serving live (paying) customer loads on an actual utility distribution feeder.
"Identifying the value local distributed energy resources (DER) can provide to our distribution system and the customers it serves, helps inform how and where customers should invest in clean renewable power," said Ron Pate, Senior Vice President of Operations and Technical Services with Ameren Illinois. "Transactive energy markets will ensure that distributed energy resources are compensated appropriately, for the services that they provide."
DERs are fundamentally changing energy supply and demand wherever they are located. Their presence and capabilities create the opportunity for new utility operational and business models based on a platform approach to the grid-DER relationship. The objective of the platform is to strengthen the relationships between the utility and its newly empowered consumers. Opus One’s GridOS platform helps to identify the value each microgrid DER provides to the local distribution feeder and the customers that is supplies, bringing wholesale market constructs to the grid edge.
“We are very pleased to be working with such an innovative partner, to unlock the value of DER for their customers” said Joshua Wong, CEO of Opus One Solutions. “It's very exciting to see the interest in and growth of transactive energy for both customer and utility benefit.” The collaboration between Ameren and Opus One will make it possible to assess various valuations and use cases for locational value of DER at the grid edge.
“Assessing how each DER provides value through system optimization using Opus One’s GridOS, while identifying the potential for similar markets near the microgrid and across the distribution system is first of its kind in North America” said Hari Subramaniam, Chief of Strategic Growth of Opus One Solutions.
To learn more, visit us at OpusOneSolutions.com.
About Opus One Solutions
Opus One Solutions is a software engineering and solutions company with the vision of a distributed energy economy. Opus One’s intelligent energy networking platform, GridOS®, optimizes complex power flows to enable real-time energy management and integrated planning for distribution utilities and other managers of distributed energy assets. GridOS is modular, scalable, and integrates seamlessly with existing data systems to unlock greater potential for distributed energy resources, including renewable generation, energy storage, and demand response. GridOS also facilitates effective management of microgrids — from homes to businesses to communities — for unparalleled grid resiliency and value to the electricity customer. Established in 2011 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Opus One Solutions is an award-winning startup and was named recently as a global Cleantech 100 company, two years running. For more information, visit OpusOneSolutions.com.
About Ameren Corporation
St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation powers the quality of life for 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area through its Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois rate-regulated utility subsidiaries. Ameren Illinois provides electric distribution and transmission service, as well as natural gas distribution service, while Ameren Missouri provides vertically integrated electric service, with generating capacity of over 10,200 megawatts, and natural gas distribution service. Ameren Transmission Company of Illinois develops regional electric transmission projects. Follow the company on Twitter @AmerenCorp. For more information, visit Ameren.com.