Norfolk State University Partners with CPower to Support Grid Reliability Across Virginia

CPower is Now the Grid Services Provider of Choice for Every Four-Year Public Higher Education Institution in the Commonwealth

BALTIMORE – June 21, 2023— CPower Energy (“CPower“), the leading, national distributed energy resource (DER) monetization and Virtual Power Plant (VPP) provider, today announced it has partnered with Norfolk State University (NSU), a four-year public education institution in Norfolk, Va., to further grid reliability across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Demand response (DR) rewards energy users for reducing their energy consumption during times of high demand on the grid. CPower has helped NSU develop strategies for reducing its energy use when the grid is stressed without impacts to operations or student health and safety. For example, NSU raises or lowers temperatures in unoccupied spaces and dims lighting in non-essential areas. By participating in DR, NSU will help to support grid reliability and reduce strain on the energy system, while advancing the institution’s sustainability goals and lowering energy costs across its campus.

“DERs are being called upon to balance the grid and keep the lights on as a combination of worsening weather events, greater integrations of intermittent renewable energy resources and evolving consumption and demand patterns increasingly strain the grid. The solution to these challenges already exists. In actively managing and optimizing the use of their energy resources, our customers help their communities avoid blackouts by providing flexibility to the grid. We are honored to partner with Norfolk State University, and with its unique abilities, are happy to further strengthen the grid across the Commonwealth,” said John Horton, President and CEO, CPower.

“CPower has been committed to our energy and sustainability goals from day-one of our engagement and is always conscious of our needs and focused on helping us create the Campus of the Future,” said Richard E. Martin, Director of Energy & Sustainability, Facilities Management, Norfolk State University. “We look forward to participating in grid services to benefit our students, our campus and the broader Virginia community.”

CPower’s solutions are designed to be flexible and scalable, allowing customers to customize their participation in a grid program to meet their specific and evolving energy needs.

CPower is the Grid Services Provider of Choice for All Four-Year Public Higher Education Institutions in Virginia

With today’s announcement, CPower is proud to announce that it has become the grid services provider of choice for all public four-year higher education institutions across the Commonwealth of Virginia, which has the nation’s largest state DR program. CPower has a long history of working with the Virginia Department of Energy and organizations throughout the Commonwealth to reduce energy costs and support grid reliability; the company has worked with a variety of customers, including commercial and industrial businesses and higher education institutions, for more than a decade. These CPower customers also contributed more than 2.6 GWh of load relief to the PJM grid during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022.

“We are proud to have been a part of the Virginia community for many years, and we look forward to continuing to work with our clients throughout the state to help them achieve their energy goals,” said Horton.

Recently named the Virtual Power Plant market leader in North America by Wood Mackenzie, CPower manages 6.3 GW of capacity at more than 17,000 customer sites across the U.S. to create the Customer-Powered Grid™, which aggregates DERs and is less reliant on traditional supply-side generation.

About CPower Energy
CPower Energy is the leading, national DER monetization and Virtual Power Plant provider, creating the Customer-Powered Grid™ that will enable a flexible, clean and dependable energy future. With 6.3 GW of capacity at more than 17,000 sites across the U.S., we unlock the full value of distributed energy resources to strengthen the grid when and where it’s needed most. CPower is based in Baltimore, Md., and is owned by LS Power, a development, investment and operating company focused on the power and energy infrastructure sector. For more information, visit: www.cpowerenergy.com.

About Norfolk State University
Norfolk State University (NSU) is a public historically black university serving approximately 5,000 undergraduate students. The campus encompasses over 30 buildings on 134 acres in Norfolk, Virginia. For more information, visit: www.nsu.edu/.

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