Smart electrical panel company Span has expanded its produce suite with SPAN Edge, an “intelligent service point” device designed for utilities to better manage the distribution grid and enable home electrification. This product establishes a new category of “at-the-meter” grid technology that delivers real-time, autonomous power controls, the company says.
SPAN Edge is designed to be installed in 15 minutes by a technician and unlocks flexible load shaping benefits. The solution enables homeowners to add EV chargers, heat pumps, batteries and more without increasing a home’s electrical service, all while providing utilities coordination at the grid-edge.
With this new product, Span has expanded its partnership with Landis+Gyr, a global provider of integrated energy management solutions, to offer SPAN Edge to its utility partners across North America.
“Span is focused on delivering purpose-built solutions that outperform legacy means to address load growth,” said Arch Rao, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Span. “Traditional infrastructure upgrades are slow and expensive to deploy, while behind-the-meter devices are complicated by intermittent reliability and control limitations. SPAN Edge is powerful, scalable and reliable, providing device-level visibility and control. By equipping utilities with an innovative, at-the-meter solution designed to affordably meet load growth, Span is helping to catalyze an electrified future for all.”
This announcement is coming at a critical moment for the energy industry. In order to meet forecasted demand growth, over half of the planned $1.3 trillion spend on U.S. utility infrastructure by 2030 will focus on improving transmission and distribution. SPAN Edge technology is positioned to bring down these costs by up to 50% for high grid value communities while still meeting demand growth. Furthermore, by combining these cost savings with faster deployment timelines, SPAN Edge is predicted to help meet regulator and ratepayer objectives.
Additional benefits include:
- Supporting rapid residential electrification: SPAN PowerUp lets homeowners with existing 100-200A service add electric loads like EV chargers, heat pumps, induction stoves and electric water heaters without requiring increased utility service.
- Providing multi-home demand flexibility: Utilities can use SPAN Dynamic Service Rating (DSR) to temporarily set a virtual limit for a home’s total consumption. This setpoint can be applied to groups of homes during peak times for load flexibility, including overall system balancing or specific transformer loading. Based on utility grid analyses, a neighborhood equipped with SPAN Edge can double the utilization of utility infrastructure.
- Deferring or avoiding costly infrastructure investment: Because DSR can guarantee demand levels for groups of homes, utilities can add electric load and defer or avoid expensive enhancements to upstream feeder, transformer or substation infrastructure, offering significant cost savings and deployment speed advantages.
- Improving end-customer satisfaction: Span gives end-customers visibility and control over how their loads are managed through a user-friendly mobile app that can be customized for each utility. Unlike other grid-enabled devices, such as smart meters, EVSEs, smart thermostats and other point solutions for demand response, SPAN Edge gives customers control to prioritize and change which electric loads are managed. Additionally, because SPAN Edge uses hardened communications as opposed to homeowner Wi-Fi, utilities can count on a reliable connection to the home.
- Advancing beyond VPP and demand response: The reliable load shaping benefits of Span devices deliver primary and secondary distribution system benefits that go beyond the limitations of traditional demand response programs, serving as true non-wires alternative resources.
- Integrating seamlessly into utility operations: Span products, including SPAN Edge devices in combination with SPAN Fleet Manager, integrate with existing AMI and utility DERMs platforms, eliminating the need for new networking and dispatch capabilities.
Utilities like Southern California Edison view this innovative solution as a potential win-win for customers and for grid infrastructure: “We see great promise in SPAN Edge as a strategic tool for grid modernization efforts. We value the solution’s ability to enhance customer engagement, support load growth, and improve operational flexibility and system utilization — helping to drive greater efficiency and cost savings,” says Shinjini Menon, Senior Vice President of System Planning & Engineering.
SPAN Edge is ready to order now. Find more information online.
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