Copper Labs unlocks data-driven and customer-centric approaches to behavioral load flexibility that can be rapidly deployed and scaled.
With a warming climate and a rapidly evolving energy system, energy and water grids are increasingly struggling to meet the demands placed on them. To help utilities meet the moment, Copper’s hardware and software solutions enable a new approach to electric demand response (DR), and it is an industry leader in the emerging field of gas load flexibility. It’s also exploring real-time water demand management to provide utilities with new ways to address scarcity and dynamically manage resources. Copper’s solutions can more equitably engage customers in the moments that matter most while delivering improved transparency into their usage and more rapid measurement and verification (M&V) for utilities.
Rapid scaled deployment
As a low-cost non-intrusive wireless retrofit, Copper’s solutions can deliver better data and unlock powerful load flexibility in months, not years.
Copper’s indoor and outdoor devices are non-invasive and easy to install, allowing utilities to start gathering high-quality data in months rather than years. Its technology avoids the need to retrofit or replace individual meters—even for utilities using drive-by AMR meters that currently only report monthly. Copper’s faster and simpler deployment model allows utilities to realize the benefits of load flexibility sooner and scale more quickly than traditional approaches.
Equitable customer empowerment
Copper empowers all customers—whether or not they have the latest smart home equipment or even working Wi-Fi networks—to be able to participate in utility load management programs.
Copper’s mobile app and customer engagement tools help utilities empower their customers to make immediate, informed changes to their consumption while driving engagement with timely alerts and personalized insights. And because its outdoor collectors don’t rely on customer Wi-Fi networks, Copper uniquely allows utilities to more equitably engage income-qualified customers who may have internet access through their smartphones but may not have in-home Wi-Fi networks needed to support in-home devices like smart thermostats.
Meaningful impacts
Copper helps utilities see the impacts of behavioral events as they happen and opens the door to timely performance-based incentives.
In its utility portal, Copper allows utilities to see the impacts of DR or load flexibility events immediately using baseline or randomized control trial (RCT) analyses. Its mobile app also helps customers understand the impacts of their contributions, and how they stack up with their participating neighbors. And Copper’s data and software platforms enables the use of timely performance-based incentives that can help drive deeper load reductions by connecting incentive levels to the actual load reductions customers deliver.
Case Study: National Grid
In a first-of-its-kind behavioral gas demand response pilot, National Grid used Copper’s technology to engage customers and generate an 18% reduction in gas consumption over a 4-hour window during an extreme blizzard in New York. Even better, the near-real-time data leveraged in this pilot will enable National Grid to better understand customer usage patterns and improve its energy efficiency programing by identifying and targeting homes with inefficient heating equipment.