EnSync Energy Systems is taking its innovative line of residential and commercial solar plus storage systems and asset control platforms one step further with the addition of demand management capability.

This new EnSync Smart Home system integrates the management of on-site solar plus storage with the management of demand from residential appliances, including electric water heaters, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, lighting sources and electric vehicle charging stations. By enabling this level of coordination between photovoltaics (PV), batteries, the utility grid and home consumption, the system not only optimizes energy for price and reliability, but also increases energy autonomy.

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The product will debut with integration of smart water heater load control, then expand to integrate electric vehicle charge control, and finally to other major appliances by the end of next year.

“The EnSync Smart Home system enables both energy independence and cost savings by integrating utility rate information and electricity supply from PV, energy storage and the grid with electricity demand data from major appliances in the home,” said Brad Hansen, CEO of EnSync Energy.

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How it works

For example, by integrating water heater load into the system, the system can intelligently manage heating of the water to occur at lower-use times of day, such as before anyone in the home wakes up or during peak PV generation, when the home is producing excess electricity, to have the water ready for the evening. The system can also intelligently discharge the battery to offset load sources in order to minimize grid electricity.

“This ability to intelligently offset home loads with storage enables the consumer to minimize adverse impact from tiered rates, time-of-day rates and demand charges from the utility, while also maintaining the quality of life and comfort the homeowner is accustomed to,” Hansen says.

The EnSync Smart Home is the latest development of the EnSync Home Energy System, which debuted in May 2018. Designed for multi-unit properties and residential communities, the system’s modular structure, DC BUS architecture and IoE communications, command and control platform optimizes the economics of clean energy for both multi-family properties and individual homes. Its lithium-iron-phosphate battery chemistry also ensures greater energy storage safety.

To achieve further grid independence, EnSync Smart Home can also integrate individual residential units into an energy sharing network with the EnSync True Peer-to-Peer DC-Link. By allowing individual residential units to exchange electricity directly with one another, this feature mitigates the inefficiencies created by vacancy rates, time-of-day absence and micro-loading effects in multi-unit properties or communities, increasing utilization of the solar generation across the network as a whole.

Being able to manage the energy supply and load in the home in an integrated and intelligent fashion will be key criteria for achieving market leadership in the residential energy storage market, which EnSync Energy estimates will be worth more than $9 billion over the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 60 percent.