Case Study: Alabama Power Company achieves up to 14% peak load shift while maintaining customer comfort with Uplight's Orchestrated Energy

Balancing Customer Comfort with Load Shift Rate-Optimized Thermostat Control at Alabama Power

Alabama Power Company, which serves 1.5 million electric customers, launched the Alabama Power Smart Advantage Program to help residential customers on its Time Advantage Rate shift usage away from peak hours while staying comfortable. To enroll, customers received a free Emerson Sensi thermostat and a $50 gift card; the challenge was to increase load flexibility under a TOU tariff without driving overrides or churn.

Uplight powered the program with its Orchestrated Energy TOU optimization, delivering daily rate‑optimized thermostat schedules that learn customer comfort bands and allow opt-outs. Using Uplight’s solution, Smart Advantage customers achieved 11% average winter peak load shift and 9–14% average summer peak load shift (versus 1–2% for standard TOU programs), set‑point overrides fell 17.5% over the summer, and enrollment doubled in Q4.

Alabama Power Company

Brandi Hurst

Senior Market Specialist