Tangent Energy Solutions and Cummins announced the formation of a joint venture named Tangent Generation Resources. The newly formed JV will market edgeGEN, a line of natural gas generators equipped with Tangent AMP, a Distributed Energy Resource Management System (DERMS). Tangent Generation Resources will sell through municipal utilities and energy retailers to help commercial and industrial (C&I) customers manage energy consumption on the grid while reducing their costs.
Tangent Generation Resources is a pioneering joint venture between a traditional engine manufacturer and a grid edge DERMS technology provider. It represents a significant step toward the realization of a more decentralized energy grid that increasingly relies on C&I Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) as a power supply source; especially during periods of peak energy use. According to one industry analyst, by 2020, DERs could provide as much as one-third of the U.S. power supply with more than 70% of that figure sourced from engine-powered assets.
The partnership of Cummins, a global power leader that manufactures, distributes and services diesel and natural gas engines and related technologies, and Tangent Energy Solutions, a leading provider of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), will work exclusively through municipal utility and energy retailer channel partners to help their C&I customers dispatch generation during peak demand periods when costs on the energy grid are the highest.
“Distribution level energy providers and their C&I customers have become more aware and interested in the embedded economic potential that generators represent in the new grid edge economy. At the same time, they do not want to be distracted from core business operations,” said Satish Jayaram, Director, Global Energy Ventures, Cummins Power Systems. “Our partnership with Tangent Energy Solutions has proven that C&I energy users see tremendous value in a combined DER/DERMS offering, which made the joint venture a logical next step.”
Market factors are predicted to increase the energy industry’s reliance on customer-side energy resources to provide power and balance volatility on the energy grid. This shift toward the “grid edge” creates more economic opportunities for customers that are equipped to recognize and respond to market signals. At the same time, these opportunities cannot interfere with the normal operation of customer energy systems.
edgeGEN™ is a branded line of generation resources that consists of Cummins clean diesel or natural gas engines equipped with a suite of integrated technology and managed services provided by Tangent Energy Solutions. The DERMS technology platform, Tangent AMP™, predicts and alerts customers ahead of peak demand periods and other economic opportunities on the energy grid, then provides dispatch, demand management services, and monetization in one turnkey offering.
“As an industry leading engine manufacturer, Cummins was the ideal partner for this joint venture because we share the vision that a decentralized energy grid can only succeed by helping distribution level energy providers empower, motivate and monetize C&I customer participation,” said Dean Musser, President and CEO of Tangent Energy Solutions. “Alternative business models that focus solely on aggregating DER assets and managing them at the utility level, or put the onus of monetizing participation on the customer, fall short of the transactive energy benefits needed to drive broad based adoption.”
