RATES
Retail Automated Transactive Energy System
What
Is RATES?
Based on years of experience in the fields of energy management, automation, and IoT – and in conjunction with expertise provided by Dr. Cazalet (the father of Transactive Energy) through TeMix Inc., 
Universal Devices, Inc. proposed RATES as the response to California Energy Commission’s Grant Funding Opportunity GFO 15-311/Group 2 Solutions That Allow Customers To Manage Their Energy Demand.
RATES proposal was approved by CEC in March of 2016 with the mission to implement and pilot test the complete solution in Southern California Edison Territory. 
RATES is based on the premise that customers should be empowered with making decisions on their energy usage and all costs associated thereto. In order to achieve this goal, RATES proposes that customers subscribe to and pay for energy usage at regular intervals. ISY994 ZS Series, an autonomous, low cost, off-the-shelf, Smart Grid and 
IoT based Automation/Energy Management System is utilized to take customer preferences, sensory, Smart Meter/Inverter, DER: Solar(PV)/EV/Storage, Occupancy and Geo Fencing, and then applying a machine-learned tailor-made algorithm to either automatically shift load usage, or purchase additional energy (at spot prices) while excess energy is credited.
From a technical perspective, RATES seamlessly integrates Energy Management, Transactive Energy, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, IoT, and Automation.
RATES is such a revolutionary architecture that we event got an award from the California Senate.
How
Does RATES Help Me?
RATES makes your home into a super-high-tech and intelligent abode. RATES is like a personal assistant that assists you in monitoring, controlling, and automating all aspects of your home’s energy usage and even production (Solar/EV/Storage). It’s totally up to you to decide whether or not you want more savings or more comfort on a per device basis. It’s up to RATES to help you achieve your goals.
And, yes, you can use Amazon Echo and Google Home to command/control/query your devices. And, yes, you can remotely monitor and control all your devices, check your energy usage, and even get estimated cost from your mobile phone.
The following devices are supported:
– Almost all off-the-shelf Z-Wave or INSTEON Devices:
— Thermostats, Pool Pumps, Lighting, Multi Sensors, Door Locks, Energy Monitors, …
– Majority of Inverters
– All Smart Meters
– IPSO v1 Sensors
– Support for additional devices will be added as necessary
Now, don’t forget to see whether or not you are eligible to join our pilot program, help promote a greener and cleaner California, while enjoying the future of energy services.
How
Does RATES Help The Utilities?
Forward Transactions and Subscriptions with Spot Transactions:
– Subscribe at specific costs and quantity for each interval
– Easily automated using subscriptions, positions, and goals
– Buy more at spot prices if necessary
– Sell at spot prices if desired
– Shed/shift load and/or DER (PV/EV/Storage)
Two-way transport tariff
– Recovers more fixed costs at higher prices when circuit is more heavily loaded in either direction.
Solves
– Bill, revenue, and grid volatility issues with prices to devices (bids/offers)
– Recovery of both fixed and variable costs for all parties
– Simplified forecasting
– Completely does away with any type of measurement/verification, baselines, prepaid rebates/incentives and all the exorbitant associated operational/administrative costs that go with these activities
Brilliant
Architecture
Although RATES acts like a unified and integrated system, however, behind the scenes it’s an intricate masterpiece in software, firmware, and hardware architecture, integration, and testing. It spans at least 10 different and disparate systems, data types, and processes. It has to make sense of and make intelligent decisions based on transactional, informational, real time energy/reactive power, climate conditions, device statuses, occupancy, mobile presence/geo fencing, voice commands, and even machine-learning sets.
Components:
Milestones
RATES Final Report
Thanks to the participation of over 110 volunteers in our RATES pilot, we learned a lot not only about Transactive Energy but also how to best engage customers using Smart Speakers. We are quite pleased with the outcome and hope you will enjoy reading the results in our official and approved RATES Final Report.
Optimize Thermostat Through Alexa | Energy Expert
You can now make RATES to be more accurate by letting it detect the energy usage for your devices. It’s magnificent. Here’s the link to the announcement.
Enhanced RATES Energy Expert Alexa Skill
You can now make RATES to be more accurate by letting it detect the energy usage for your devices. It’s magnificent. Here’s the link to the announcement.
RATES Energy Expert Alexa Skill
You can now talk to RATES through Alexa. We all this Energy Expert Skill and it’s awesome. Here’s the link to the announcement. Make sure you listen to the demo and interactions with Alexa!
Questions?
Still Not Convinced?
As our testimonials can attest, we truly believe we are nothing without our customers. So, please do not hesitate to contact us for any questions, suggestions, and comments. You won’t be disappointed.
Do you want to do more research on our products, features, and even ethics? No problem! Just hop over to our 9K+ member strong forum where you can view and participate in lively discussions of all things UD | ISY and some other geeky and interesting stuff.
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