ATLANTA—Hyatt Hotels in New York City; Jersey City, New Brunswick, and Morristown, N.J.; Fairfax, Va.; and Greenville S.C. participated in demand response curtailment programs during the recent record setting heat wave, and as a result saved approximately 760 kW of electricity in one day alone, which is the same amount of power needed to supply about 117 homes.
The Hyatt Hotels’ participation in demand response during these emergency conditions helped their local utility companies meet the power demand of all customers and avoid power outages and blackouts. Demand response is a relatively new concept gaining wide acceptance as an effective means of addressing issues regarding electricity utilization such as pricing, reliability and emergency planning.
Demand response works because it allows customers in both retail and wholesale electricity markets to choose whether or not to respond to pricing or other kinds of incentives by reducing or shifting their electricity usage, particularly during peak periods. This differs from simple energy efficiency in that it allows the customer to temporarily reduce its consumption of electricity in response to a pre-defined need, such as a request from a utility or in response to fluctuating market prices.
Hyatt’s demand response capability was enhanced by Servidyne’s Fifth Fuel Management demand response solution. Developed in 2009 by Servidyne, Fifth Fuel Management provides real-time demand response capabilities to operators of large, complex buildings, like office towers, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, universities and hotels. The system is built upon two core competencies: Servidyne’s energy engineering practice and its propriety software-as-a-service Web/wireless iTendant platform.
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