Danville’s utility commission will hear a presentation about the city’s electric demand response program at its regular meeting Monday at 4 p.m. The demand response program encourages certain consumers to shift or reduce electric load during peak events, like heatwaves.
Several Danville Utilities customers have been part of this program for over a decade, and they have financially benefited from the program, while also lowering demand and increasing reliability during peak events, according to the staff report in the meeting’s agenda packet.
Bill Oosterom with CPower, a curtailment service provider, will deliver this presentation to the commission.
A curtailment service provider is a third-party that helps electricity consumers engage in demand response programs.
Through the program, customers are incentivized to reduce their electric load during critical periods, which helps ensure local grid reliability, benefits the environment by reducing the need for new power plants and provides a source of new revenue, according to the presentation in the agenda packet.
Residential customers can’t participate in this program, which is limited to commercial and industrial customers like office buildings, educational institutions, government and municipal agencies, healthcare facilities, industrial and manufacturing consumers, and data centers.
Oosterom will present an overview of how the program works, how testing for emergency events works, and the program’s revenue projections for 2026-2027.
Danville is the only municipality in Virginia that operates all four essential utility services: water, wastewater, electricity and natural gas.
Danville has been in the utility business since 1876 and serves Danville, most Pittsylvania County households and also portions of Henry and Halifax counties.
Danville Utilities is a member of American Municipal Power, a nonprofit that operates electric facilities. In 2014, AMP selected CPower to offer demand response services to AMP municipalities, which can opt into the program.
Since 2015, Danville Utilities customers that have participated in the demand response program have provided a total of about 80 megawatts of curtailment performance, or reduction in electricity consumption, and earned almost $1.3 million in program revenues, according to the presentation.
Also meeting in Danville this week is the Community Policy and Management Team on Thursday at 10 a.m. In Pittsylvania County, the Local Board of Social Services will meet Monday at 5:45 p.m.