Dive Brief:

• Parkland USA is working with virtual power plant provider Maplewell Energy to pilot the beta version of its JANiiT energy management platform at two c-stores, according to a recent press release.
• The platform lets companies use distributed energy resources, artificial intelligence and more to efficiently manage their electrical loads, hopefully cutting back on waste and bringing down peak usage.
• Maplewell’s program has been piloted at Parkland stores in Denver and Salt Lake City, and resulted in the retailer seeing a 25% reduction in peak energy use, with future reductions projected at 42%, according to the release.  

Dive Insight:

The platform attempts to help retailers address the problem of demand chargers — fees charged by power companies based on a customer’s peak usage. Lowering peak energy usage keeps those charges lower as well.

With labor difficulties and inflation increasing costs across retail, the ability to use less energy and reduce usage peaks could save c-stores money. 

“We have piloted an innovative technology at two of our locations as a way of exploring opportunities to reduce peak energy usage and lower costs,” said Simon Scott, director of corporate communications for Parkland.

The program at Parkland also uses refrigerators and HVAC systems as a means of storing energy. For example, the system pre-cools canned and bottled drinks before times of peak usage, so the refrigeration will use less energy during those high-demand periods.

While neither of Parkland’s locations involved in the pilot have EV charging, this technology could be of special interest for locations that do, or want to add it. Demand charges can be onerous for retailers with fast chargers, because when vehicles plug in, they cause significant spikes in power draw and make electric usage more expensive for retailers. 

Maplewell platform has been running in Denver for roughly a year and in Salt Lake City for about six weeks, a Parkland spokesperson said in an email.

“The pilot showed that our solution can dynamically manage demand without impacting enterprise operations, resulting in significant savings for commercial and industrial building owners and operators,”  said Matt Irvin, CEO and co-founder of Maplewell. 

Maplewell’s demand management software integrates “forecasting, predictive control, and real-time feedback-based optimization that is proactive instead of reactive.” 

In addition to the two c-stores, Parkland USA plans to add an office building and an industrial facility to the pilot, according to the press release.

Parkland USA operates 212 c-stores across a number of brands, including Superpumper, Harts and ConoMart Super Stores.