Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is working with California-based Span to deploy its edge technology to help householders electrify their homes more affordably and efficiently.

Span Edge is an at-the-meter device that enables real-time load management and lets homes add electric appliances or electric vehicle charging without costly electric panel or service upgrades.

PG&E will deploy the devices coupled with smart metering infrastructure through its PanelBoost programme, a grid-edge initiative designed to reduce upgrade costs for those adopting electric vehicles, heat pumps, induction cooking and other high efficiency electric technologies.

PG&E estimates that more than 600,000 homes in its service area are likely to require some type of electric service upgrade in the next decade to meet electrification demand.

“PG&E is committed to helping our customers electrify affordably while maintaining a reliable, resilient grid,” said Mike Delaney, vice president at PG&E (www.pge.com). “Our work with Span aims to enable thousands of households to add electric appliances and EVs faster and without more costly panel and electric system upgrades.”

Arch Rao, CEO of Span (www.span.io), added: “Our partnership with PG&E is a critical step in making home electrification affordable and accessible. By deploying Span Edge at scale, we are helping PG&E customers bypass the traditional panel bottleneck and accelerate the transition to clean energy.”

Span Edge uses a dynamic service rating capability to shape home energy demand during peak events, helping protect local electric transformers and maintain grid reliability. This technology complements PG&E’s broader grid edge, R&D and innovation strategy to develop and deploy scalable smart-panel and meter-socket-based technology to avoid expensive service upgrades for customers.

Electricians and installers participating in early PanelBoost feedback sessions praised the programme for helping householders avoid electric panel service upgrades.

“PG&E just made it possible to effectively have a 200A panel by throttling the loads in their house,” said one installer.

Span’s existing customer-sited infrastructure and dynamic service rating provided PG&E with load-shaping capability and analytics, and future VPPs can further scale these benefits through at-the-meter technologies such as Span Edge.

The devices can be installed quickly at the electric meter. They offer utilities a reliable, flexible load-shaping tool and give customers a lower-cost path to electrification, avoiding service upgrades that can cost $6000 to $40,000 and take months to complete. In comparison, the cost estimate for a householder to have an electrician install a Span Edge device through PanelBoost could be between $500 and $2000 depending on a range of factors.

Through PanelBoost, PG&E will supply the devices as an add on to their electric meter, and customers will be responsible for the costs for an electrician to install the device and for costs to wire any new appliances and loads connecting to the device.

PG&E initially plans to scale Span Edge devices to thousands of users when the programme kicks off in the summer, with further scale as the programme develops over the next several years.

To learn more about PG&E’s electrification programmes and offerings, visit www.pge.com/electrification.