Hakan Yilmaz, president of Carrier Energy and chief sustainability officer at Carrier, describes the company's field trial of variable speed heat pumps with onboard battery storage. He explains how grid-interactive HVAC shifts peak demand, eases utility congestion, and can be aggregated into virtual power plants.
00:00:01:04 - 00:00:26:09
Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah Gutterman, I'm CEO of Green Builder Media and I am here today with her consumers, the president, for carrier Energy and the chief sustainability officer for carrier. Can you please tell me about carrier's field trial of your heat pump? Hvac systems with battery backup that fits into this whole concept of distributed energy resources.
00:00:26:12 - 00:00:57:07
Hakan Yilmaz: We are redesigning, redefining Hvac and how it operates in a more great, friendly, grid resilient way. It's really a turning point for the whole industry. We are right now piloting and next generation residential Hvac system that integrates variable speed heat pumps with battery storage. These systems are designed to shift energy use away from the peak periods, improving the grid responsiveness while maintaining the homeowner comfort, which is super important for us.
00:00:57:09 - 00:01:23:29
Hakan Yilmaz: The goal of the field trials is to validate the system's ability to reduce peak electricity demand, enable demand response and support the grid resilience which we all need right now to deliver the load coming from I demand, and also from, electrification needs. We are collaborating with Electric Power Research Institute every to provide our third party validation of the field trial.
00:01:24:01 - 00:01:36:09
Hakan Yilmaz: And a priest conducting, instrumentation and utility grade assessments to ensure that credible results that can inform regulatory filings and utility program designs.
00:01:36:11 - 00:01:49:24
Sara Gutterman: Do you have any specific goals relative to peak load shifting, peak load shedding? And then how does all of that translate into benefits for homeowners as well as for utilities?
00:01:49:27 - 00:02:23:00
Hakan Yilmaz: We as a carrier are fundamentally reimagining how the Hvac systems operate and how they become active participants in the grid management, rather than staying as passive consumers. And as you know, Hvac load on the grid is really massive. About 40% of the peak capacity in the US grid is dedicated for Hvac load. And this core innovation, which is really home grown organically with our teams, involves integrating onboard dedicated batteries for the Hvac units.
00:02:23:03 - 00:03:00:00
Hakan Yilmaz: Homeowners with this solution maintain full comfort, no behavioral changes required. If they want to have 72 Fahrenheit flat in their home, they get their 72 Fahrenheit flat in their home, with the perfect comfort and no sacrifice. The system operates as usual, but it avoids drawing power during high cost peak hours, potentially lowering energy bills and improving call better performance with battery assisted heat pumps, utilities gain access to millions of distributed dispatchable assets that respond in real time to great conditions, and this supports in return.
00:03:00:00 - 00:03:18:06
Hakan Yilmaz: Renewable integration enhances reliability, reduces the need for costly infrastructure built solely to handle reactor even peaks. So if you're turning very predictable but uncontrollable, have peak load on the grid to a very controllable asset for the grid.
00:03:18:09 - 00:03:45:11
Sara Gutterman: Let me ask about the installation, Hakan, because obviously this will be, you know, battery backup storage is not a typical installation use case for Hvac contractor. So, are you training your Hvac contractors to install the battery backup system as well? Is it integrated? Is and is it an easy install, or do builders need to bring in an additional contractor to then install that battery backup system?
00:03:45:13 - 00:04:15:07
Hakan Yilmaz: First of all, we have a very strong installation channel in the US. We are pretty much one third of the US market on the residential side, and very we have very strong distribution and channel partners, and we are designing the better installation and integration in a, simplified way. So it is very quick. It is very scalable. It is, very manageable in terms of installation and maintenance so that our technicians can handle it very easily.
00:04:15:09 - 00:04:33:04
Sara Gutterman: Have you designed this Hvac and battery backup system to address resiliency? You've talked about peak load shifting and peak load shedding, but can you talk a little bit about, maintaining, and the independence of a home during, say, a grid outage?
00:04:33:07 - 00:05:02:05
Hakan Yilmaz: We are really addressing the actual the root cause of this congestion problems. Our system addresses the concerns and flexibility needs of the grid by flattening the demand curves and easing the stress on the grid during extreme weather or high usage events. So since when the grid is under stress, like extreme weather or high demand, it's more likely, going to experience outages.
00:05:02:07 - 00:05:29:16
Hakan Yilmaz: Our solution, delivers a flexibility that means the grid can operate during disruptions by reducing the peak demand, supporting the recovery by means of delivering distributed energy. So we are really doubling down on the root cause that causes the situation, on the stress on the grid and eliminating that. So if you don't have a peak coming from the Hvac, the job of the utilities become a lot easier.
00:05:29:19 - 00:05:57:00
Sara Gutterman: As you mentioned, you're working with several utilities on this field trial. Now, what of those collaborations revealed about scaling demand response and load flexibility? And, have you had any conversations with the utilities to date about offering any kind of rebates or incentives at a utility level for this type of a system that can really help, eliminate that grid stress?
00:05:57:02 - 00:06:24:25
Hakan Yilmaz: The way we, work with utilities is, is all about scale and expansion of these solutions. If you look at, our partnerships with utilities, they're all trying to solve the congestion problem. Right? There is the Hvac load. Hvac load is on majority of the built environment in us. And then there's the electrification coming up. The energy prices are going up.
00:06:24:28 - 00:06:55:13
Hakan Yilmaz: What we do is we are flattening the lot of the Hvac. We are removing all the congestion coming from the Hvac load, giving the relief back to the grid. And it creates a lot of value for the grid, because a lot of the inefficiencies and the cost of the grid comes from the peak load, right? Majority of the the expenses on the grid side from distribution peak, which is around 3 to 4 p.m. in the afternoon, it's pretty much caused by the Hvac load.
00:06:55:16 - 00:07:19:07
Hakan Yilmaz: It's the hottest time of the day. And then you have the system peak, which is about 6 to 8 p.m. when the sun is down. The solar is gone and you're relying on peak hours and people are still at home and they have this air conditioning running. Maybe it's 7,080% load. We need that congestion as well. And we help avoid peak airplanes.
00:07:19:09 - 00:07:45:04
Hakan Yilmaz: Plus there is additional load coming from data centers and other industrial load and EV charging that start on schedule around 10 p.m.. By removing the load of the Hvac from the peak, we enable the existing capacity on the grid to be used for these other electrical loads. All in all, what we do is we create efficiency and better capital utilization off our existing grid.
00:07:45:06 - 00:08:18:06
Hakan Yilmaz: Then of course, when you increase the utilization of the existing grid, the cost come down. And what we're looking for is a solution that unlocks value for the grid. It unlocks value for us, and it shields the homeowners from discomfort, price hikes, and also reduction in their energy bills because they avoid using, electricity for their Hvac during the peak hours, where energy generation is the most expensive because they can't use the energy that they stored around noontime, which is a lot cheaper.
00:08:18:13 - 00:08:34:27
Sara Gutterman: Does your system currently connect to other demand side energy management systems, like solar or even whole home battery backup systems, EV chargers, and other smart devices to create a comprehensive demand side energy management whole home system.
00:08:35:00 - 00:09:05:12
Hakan Yilmaz: All of our connected units, all of our batteries come out of the box, connected either to Wi-Fi or silver network. That connectivity enables us to talk to any other appliance in the home or the grid to the substation. The grid operator. However, our current battery enabled system is designed to be a great interactive, standalone solution that prioritizes ease of installation, cost effectiveness, and utility program compatibility.
00:09:05:14 - 00:09:31:12
Hakan Yilmaz: We are invisibly scalable, and that's our priority. The initial product lounge deliberately avoids these connections for several reasons. They will come later. It's possible, but we want to reduce complexity and upfront costs. The fact that the batteries only connected to the heat pump avoids additional setup and assists with the overall adoption. Back to your question about how do we train the technicians?
00:09:31:17 - 00:10:00:21
Hakan Yilmaz: We want to make our technicians and installers life very easy, and we want to have this process, seamless and invisible to the homeowner so it can be scaled in a hassle free way for our installers and for the for the homeowners. And since there is no interconnection required to your panel or anything and everything happens behind our outdoor units connectivity, the system is very fast to install, provide fast access to be optimized for demand response programs.
00:10:00:24 - 00:10:21:07
Hakan Yilmaz: And this is how we like how we would like to come to the market. And of course we are thinking about other ecosystem partnerships, talking to other behind the meter SS like smart panels and, EV chargers and solar panels and inverters and other things. But that will come at a second stage after we are installing our batteries and making them work for the grid.
00:10:21:10 - 00:10:22:28
Hakan Yilmaz: That comes as a bonus. Later.
00:10:23:00 - 00:10:33:25
Sara Gutterman: We are seeing a rapid expansion of virtual power plants, or VPP. So does your system or will it at some point play a role in NPS?
00:10:34:02 - 00:11:02:20
Hakan Yilmaz: By turning our installed base off residential Hvac systems, into dispatchable, great interactive energy assets, carrier can play a central and transformative role in VPP, especially with our scale of load and controllability. The battery enable rack systems installed across thousands or even millions of homes can be aggregated into VPP, allowing the utilities or aggregators to control fleets of a track system.
00:11:02:20 - 00:11:09:16
Hakan Yilmaz: Think of it as a macro grid of Hvac systems talking to each other in a unified way.
00:11:09:18 - 00:11:18:10
Sara Gutterman: I'm curious to hear what kind of performance variability are you seeing in your field trial across climate zones and regions?
00:11:18:12 - 00:11:51:09
Hakan Yilmaz: There is a variety, right? We are, attaching our Hvac and battery together to operate, is one unified product, and we are seeing different type of requirements on each utility ecosystem. First of all, our utilities and we have over 2000 of them, unlike snowflakes, they are all in different climate zones. They all have different regulation. They all have different customer requirements and customer base.
00:11:51:11 - 00:12:17:12
Hakan Yilmaz: They learn from each other. They adapt to new solutions fast. If they if it really works for their, their KPIs. But at the end of the day, each utility has a different requirements. Some require it. They had demand response, some require in 5 to 10 second demand response. Some require a full aggregation. Some require an upfront programing and different type of connectivity requirements.
00:12:17:12 - 00:12:46:03
Hakan Yilmaz: So we are working with each utility partner we have and solving their real problems as a partner. And the way that we are approaching this problem is Hvac is very climate dependent product, right? It's climate ization. It's basically control the temperature in your house. We have four different size of each rack two ton, three ton for ten feet on, different type of tiered products.
00:12:46:05 - 00:13:10:20
Hakan Yilmaz: And we operate in different climate zones. And of course, if you are operating this rack unit, in Texas, you know, hot and humid, like in Florida where I am right now, it's going to act very differently in terms of grid interactivity compared to, let's say, New York or Midwest, because of that climate and temperature dependance and how you build a home the size of the home.
00:13:10:22 - 00:13:38:03
Hakan Yilmaz: It's a thermal management device. It's very custom solution based on the location, based on the size of the building, size of the Hvac, size of the battery, duration of the demand response, and the maturity of the VP programs of the utilities. Sounds complex, but it's actually possible. And we're working with all of our utility partners through our advisory committee who's overseeing our test results.
00:13:38:05 - 00:13:50:24
Hakan Yilmaz: And we're making sure that in collaboration with multiple utilities, we consider all of these options and requirements and make sure that we have a solution that's nationwide, scalable with all of the utilities that we work with.