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Tucson Electric Power and Shifted Energy to Evaluate Machine Learning-based Load Control through EPRI Incubatenergy® Program

July 27, 2021

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Honolulu

HI

United States

HONOLULU, HI (July 27, 2021) – The Electric Power Research Institute's (EPRI) Incubatenergy Labs program announced that Shifted Energy was selected as one of 20 startup companies that will conduct accelerated demonstrations of their technologies with utilities and EPRI as part of Incubatenergy Labs’ 2021 Cohort. The company will collaborate with Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power (TEP) to install intelligent load control switches on residential water heaters, leveraging machine learning to provide the utility with better load forecasting and load shaping.

Shifted Energy was chosen from among more than 250 international startups by a panel of global utility and EPRI subject matter experts. The selected startups are spending 16 weeks working with electric power utilities and EPRI on demonstration technology projects intended to accelerate decarbonization, electrification, grid modernization, and other electric power industry innovation imperatives. The 2021 Cohort runs from June to October, with results presented during interactive Incubatenergy Labs Demo Days Oct. 19-20, 2021.

“This program advances our ongoing effort to provide our customers with tools to make smart energy choices,” said Ted Burhans, Director of Emerging Technologies and Innovation at Tucson Electric Power. “By making slight adjustments to shift their usage away from peak times, they can save money and make the most of our renewable energy resources, while helping us keep our service reliable and affordable.”

“Collaborating on the rapid assessment and deployment of innovations across power generation, delivery, and end use is essential to achieving deep decarbonization by 2035,” said Incubatenergy Lead Erik Steeb. “Incubatenergy Labs brings startups like Shifted Energy and utilities together to crowdsource the demonstration of these innovations and speed the commercialization of promising technologies.”

“We’re thrilled to be selected as one of the companies to participate in this year’s Incubatenergy Labs program,” said Shifted Energy CEO Forest Frizzell. “EPRI’s initiative is a great way for energy tech companies to demonstrate their latest innovations, and we look forward to showcasing our partnership with Tucson Electric Power.”

Host utilities for this year’s Cohort include: Ameren and TVA, along with participating utilities Con Edison, Duke Energy, Enel, FirstEnergy, Fortis (Newfoundland Power, FortisBC, Central Hudson), Green Mountain Power, New York Power Authority, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Portland General Electric, Southern California Edison, Salt River Project (SRP), Tucson Electric Power, Vermont Electric Coop, Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO), and Xcel Energy.

Follow Shifted Energy on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. For more information about Shifted Energy’s intelligent water tank controllers powered by machine learning, visit www.shiftedenergy.com.

About Shifted Energy

Shifted Energy accelerates the integration of renewable energy by developing and deploying software and controllers that retrofit electric water heaters into fleets of thermal energy storage assets. Using its industry-leading virtual power plant software, Shifted Energy aggregates these assets to help stabilize the grid, absorb excess renewable energy, and decrease peak demand at a fraction of the cost of batteries, helping to engage hard-to-reach customers, such as renters and multi-family apartment dwellers, in the renewable energy transformation. For more information, visit www.shiftedenergy.com.