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On the Hottest Days, APS Virtual Power Plant Helps Cool Demand on Grid
PHOENIX - This is National and Arizona Clean Energy Week, a celebration of the carbon-free technologies that power our daily lives. APS currently provides customers with energy that is 51% clean through a mix that includes nuclear and renewable resources and offers programs that help customers reduce energy use and save money. One innovative resource is APS’s virtual power plant (VPP).
What is a virtual power plant?
APS’s VPP is a partnership with customers, a network of thousands of customer-owned devices, like smart thermostats and home battery storage, that act as an energy resource and a collaborative way to reduce energy demand at peak times to balance supply and demand. The energy production this connection of smart technology avoids reduces the need to start up or build a traditional, physical power plant. This saves customers’ money, protects the environment and increases overall grid reliability.
The APS Cool Rewards program fuels the VPP. This opt-in program pays customers to voluntarily conserve energy during the times of day when demand is highest.
- Customers receive $85 in bill credits the first year they enroll, and $35 the following years they participate.
- On a limited number of days, enrolled customers will be notified their thermostats will adjust up or down a few degrees for a set amount of time that day.
- With over 90,000 thermostats currently enrolled in Cool Rewards, the impact of that slight adjustment takes 140 megawatts (MW) of energy demand off the grid is similar to what a small power plant produces and enough to serve about 22,000 Arizona homes. (For context, 1 MW of energy can power about 160 homes in Arizona.)
- Customers can opt out at any time by manually adjusting their thermostat to a desired temperature, at no penalty.
“Arizona is experiencing incredible growth in both the residential and industrial sectors,” says Kerri Carnes, APS Director of Customer Technology. “APS is well positioned to meet our customers’ growing energy needs, and programs like Cool Rewards help not only meet energy demand but do so in a way that serves Arizonans more efficiently. Our virtual power plant is a triple win, benefitting our customers, the grid and the environment.”
Powering the VPP
Additional VPP programs combine with APS Cool Rewards to remove 190 MW of energy off the grid and save customers’ money:
- Energy Savings Days – On certain days, customers who are not enrolled in Cool Rewards are encouraged to voluntarily conserve energy with easy ways to do so at home. They receive a report showing how much energy they saved by making those simple changes.
- Residential Battery Pilot – In this pilot program, participating customers’ home battery devices dispatch energy back to the power grid on certain days.
- Peak Solutions – Participating business customers agree to reduce energy use during times of high demand.
APS will continue to expand VPP sources by exploring how other smart home devices can work with the program. Learn more about technology and innovation by visiting aps.com/tech.
APS is the state’s leader in clean energy
To keep pace with growing energy needs, APS is optimizing existing resources and making significant investments in cost-competitive clean energy on the path to serving customers with 100% clean and carbon-free energy by 2050. Some of the steps APS is taking to reach that goal include:
- By 2027, APS will seek to add more than 6,000 MW of solar and wind power, coupled with battery storage, which will provide the greatest long-term value and affordability to customers.
- In 2024 alone, APS has added 216 MW of large-scale wind energy and an additional 215 MW of large-scale solar.
- APS ranks fifth nationally for the percentage of residential customers with rooftop solar.
- In 2023, 22% of the energy delivered to APS customers was produced by Palo Verde Generating Station, one of the largest and clean energy resources in the country.
Visit aps.com/clean for more information.
APS serves approximately 1.4 million homes and businesses in 11 of Arizona’s 15 counties, and is a leader in delivering reliable, affordable, clean energy in the Southwest. With headquarters in Phoenix, APS is the principal subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (NYSE: PNW).
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