Genesis says AI trial cuts energy use by 10% in off-peak times with smart hot water control

Genesis Energy says its hot water trial has reduced its customers' power usage by 10%.

Genesis Energy says a trial using artificial intelligence to control hot water settings is reducing its customers’ energy usage by 10%.

The company – the country’s second-biggest energy retailer after Mercury – said its trial of 17,000 customers showed that reduced usage did not mean a change of lifestyle for them.

The programme allows Genesis to alter when hot water is heated across its customer base so that heating falls outside peak times, reducing costs for customers and relieving strain on the national power grid – especially in winter, the company said.

New Zealand already has a system called ripple control, which allows distributors to turn down the power used for water heating overnight over an entire network.

Genesis’ trial is a similar concept to ripple control, although it is targeted at individual consumers.

The company said it was working with GridSmart, a division of Japan’s Rinnai, to test new technology that would allow even smarter demand management, customised to individual customer use patterns.

Water heating is one of the biggest contributors to household electricity use, accounting for around 30% of the energy used by an average household, Genesis chief revenue officer Stephen England-Hall said.

“As New Zealand moves towards wider electrification, it’s vital to ensure growing demand doesn’t place unnecessary strain on the grid,” he said.

England-Hall said Genesis was looking at how smart, automated technology can help reduce peak demand, lower customer bills, and maximise the use of renewable generation.

Since starting the programme in September last year, Genesis shifted about 500 megawatt hours of energy demand out of peak periods as the programme scaled up.

For customers on the programme, on average 32% of their hot water load had been shifted out of the morning peak and 14% out of the evening peak.

Overall, Genesis has shifted 1.43 gigawatt hours of hot water load over the past 10 months to various times of day.

“We’re still learning and optimising the programme so expect benefits to customers and the grid to increase,” England-Hall said.

The next step is to trial new smart home devices that more closely match electricity demand with an individual customer’s use, allowing more efficient management and targeted customer savings, he said.

GridSmart has developed a device that is retrofitted to a customer’s hot water cylinder, which allows real-time visibility of household water usage, enabling more accurate balancing of demand.

The system uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assess how much hot water is needed and when, while utilising renewable generation and reducing “grid congestion”, GridSmart general manager Charles Chu said.

“Current solutions are blunt and not dynamic – this device means homes can have family over unexpectedly, or enjoy a long shower after a hard day without having to worry about their water running cold,” he said.

Jamie Gray is an Auckland-based journalist, covering the financial markets and the primary sector. He joined the Herald in 2011.