How Exelon and Constellation Are Furthering Energy Innovation

Constellation’s parent company Exelon recently outlined its ongoing commitment to sustainability in its 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. This commitment drives Constellation’s strategic initiatives and is central to our own mission of providing innovative energy products and solutions that are cleaner, more affordable and more reliable.

The report outlines how Exelon’s business and sustainability strategy creates value for its customers and showcases its culture of environmental stewardship, innovation and community service. With that, we wanted to highlight some of Constellation’s contributions to Exelon’s 2015 success. This post is the second in a three-part series summarizing Constellation’s impact on the business.

Innovation

Competitive markets drive innovation. As Exelon’s competitive and retail business, Constellation is driving the transition to a clean energy future by providing innovative energy options for customers through competitive markets, and by investing in venture-stage energy technology companies through our Constellation Technology Ventures (CTV) organization. There are other ways in which Constellation is furthering energy innovation.

CTV invests in growth-stage technology companies representing innovations that complement Exelon’s core businesses, with the goal of providing new solutions to Exelon and our customers. Investments through CTV comprise a wide range of new technologies, including electric vehicles, local generation, energy storage, renewable generation and intelligent buildings. Successful investments are placed into CTV’s New Business Incubator, where a specialized team facilitates commercialization of CTV investments and other new technologies within Exelon business units.

The following companies illustrate the range of technologies included in CTV’s portfolio:

• Bidgely is a residential energy load disaggregation solution that provides proven engagement and savings for residential consumers. The Bidgely solution extracts energy signatures that are unique to the major appliances in every household and tracks the energy used by each without the need for plug-level hardware sensors. Bidgely’s customers are both electric utilities, who deploy the solution to improve customer engagement and increase the effectiveness of smart usage rewards and energy efficiency programs, and competitive energy suppliers, who leverage the solution as a customer acquisition and retention tool. More information is available at bidgely.com.
• Organic Response is a distributed intelligence lighting control system for commercial and public buildings. Its innovative technology enables lighting fixture manufacturers to transform traditional lighting fixtures into smart lights by embedding their proprietary sensor nodes at the factory. Once installed and powered on site, they are capable of autonomous control that automatically adapts to changes in the environment to provide a seamless, energy-efficient lighting solution for indoor applications.
• Powerhouse Dynamics has developed and sells SiteSage®, a building asset and energy management platform that delivers controls and detailed consumption analytics. SiteSage® is geared toward the large, but underserved, sub-20,000 square foot building segment, and is ideal for multi-site enterprises like quick-serve restaurants and small-box retailers. SiteSage® uses a combination of wireless controls and sensors to track real-time performance of individual pieces of equipment and provide remote enterprise control.
• Ogin is developing a new wind turbine concept derived from aerospace technology. Ogin’s design features a unique shroud, which drives higher efficiency, enabling applications restricted by height and footprint. In 2015, Ogin demonstrated, through field validation, the highest aerodynamic efficiency ever measured in the history of wind energy. Notwithstanding this achievement, enhancements for even higher performance have been identified and are currently in development. As a testament to commercial readiness, Ogin will commission its first commercial scale wind energy project in Palm Springs, Calif., and complete third-party certification to globally accepted industry standards in 2016.