Demand Response

What is Demand Response?

Polaris Energy Services' Demand Response program is designed to help agricultural businesses reduce energy costs by adjusting their electricity usage during peak demand periods. This program incentivizes growers to lower or shift their energy consumption when the grid is under stress or electricity prices are high. Polaris works with growers to automate and schedule reductions in power use, particularly in energy-intensive processes like irrigation, cooling, and water pumping.

How Does It Work?

When a demand response event is triggered, Polaris communicates with the grower's equipment to temporarily reduce energy usage without disrupting critical operations. In return, growers earn payments or credits for participating, saving on energy costs while supporting grid stability.

Growers in California can offset installation costs for pump controls and remote monitoring solutions by applying for PG&E’s Automated Demand Response (ADR) Program incentives.

PG&E’s ADR Program offers up to $200 per kW of calculated load reduction in exchange for a commitment to demand response program and event participation. In a demand response event, PG&E calls on participating growers to temporarily turn down or turn off irrigation pumps. In return, customers may earn payments each time they participate in a demand response event. By participating in a demand response program, you help keep our state’s energy supply clean, reliable and affordable.

Eligibility and commitments:

In order to be eligible for ADR incentives, customers must have:

At least one irrigation pump equipped with a PG&E interval meter
At least one year of billing history
Customers commit to:
- Participate in a qualifying demand response program for at least three to five years, directly with PG&E or through an aggregator. A current list of qualifying demand response programs is available at: pge.com/autodr
- Participate in demand response events, usually through automatic, temporary and safe reduction or shut down of irrigation pumps

Incentives and ongoing payments:

The one-time technology incentive is $200 per kW of calculated load reduction covering up to 75% of eligible ADR project costs
Ongoing payment amount depends on the selected demand response program

Growers could receive:

One-time incentives to install equipment monitoring solutions and ADR enabled controls for pumps. These solutions can give growers the ability to remotely:

Monitor on/off status of pumps
Turn off pumps year-round
Ongoing payments for actively participating in a qualifying demand response program
Convenience and control over demand response event participation through:
- Advance notification of upcoming events via text, email or phone call
- Automated event participation
- Ability to override pump shutdown during events
- Technical and administrative support including incentive estimation, application processing, demand response program enrollment process and ongoing connectivity support

Additional Details

How to Enroll

Agricultural customers can enroll through us, Polaris Energy Services, or directly with PG&E or a participating CCA. Enrollment opens by November 1, 2024. If interested, please complete the form and we will be in touch. 

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