Plug Power is building a comprehensive green hydrogen ecosystem, from production, storage and delivery to energy generation, to help its customers meet their business goals and decarbonize the economy. At its hydrogen production plant in Georgia, Plug built and operates the largest proton exchange membrane electrolyzer deployment in the U.S. While their mission centers on accelerating decarbonization through deploying hydrogen fuel cell technology, Plug remains keenly attuned to electricity grid conditions and prices. “As a hydrogen producer, electricity is one of our largest cost drivers and is crucial to the financial viability of our production plants,” highlighted Jessica Fleck, Senior Manager of Energy Procurement at Plug Power.
After partnering with Amperon, Plug gained the forecasting tools needed to predict peak load, which is crucial for tracking Georgia Transmission Corporation’s coincident peaks. “Without accurate forecasting, we could risk financial impacts in the millions,” says Fleck, whose team is focused on minimizing electricity costs. With Amperon’s grid forecast, Plug can now confidently manage their plant’s operations, optimizing hydrogen production while minimizing the risk of costly peak demand charges.
By collaborating with Amperon’s customer success team and domain experts, Plug effectively integrated our API into their existing operational workflows. “Every morning, I refresh the load and temperature forecasts in my workflow, which then provides a risk assessment for potential coincident peak events over the next 15 days. This information is crucial for our operations team to decide whether to curtail production during high-risk periods,” Fleck explains. Amperon’s platform has also streamlined communication across their team. The ability to quickly pull data and integrate it into customized reports means that everyone, from operations to financial planning, stays informed and aligned. The financial benefits of using Amperon’s platform have significant potential. By accurately avoiding peak demand periods and curtailing electricity usage accordingly, Fleck estimates, “a 50 MW load at current capacity and transmission rates could avoid charges exceeding $4 million annually.” In addition, Amperon’s platform was easy to deploy across teams at Plug. “Amperon’s platform is extremely user-friendly—unlike other solutions we assessed—and I can seamlessly operationalize the data and train colleagues,” says Fleck. “As we build more plants across other parts of the U.S. where rates are subject to coincident peak programs, we plan to leverage the same forecasting capabilities to avoid similar charges” says Fleck. Whether it’s managing summer peaks in Texas or monitoring winter peaks in the Southeast, Amperon’s forecasting tool is a critical component of Plug’s demand management strategy.
