Lower demand charges · How it works
Assess, Recommend, Automate, with your sign-off
Demand management with NeoTechX runs in three steps. Assess and Recommend are read-only: we study your data, show what sets your peaks and give you options. Only after supervised tests and your written sign-off does NeoShift automate, within the limits you approved.
The deployment path
1. Assess: the Free Demand Assessment Available
NeoTechX reviews 12 to 24 months of interval data and bills from BC Hydro or FortisBC, your rate schedule, an equipment list and, where available, a single-line drawing, then walks the site. There are no software fees. You learn the share of your peak that is addressable, likely constraints, prerequisites, and whether NeoTechX would proceed, offer a report only, or decline.
2. On-site metering, where needed
If your historical data is not enough, NeoCore is installed with read access to your equipment and meter. You pay only for the hardware, installed by a licensed electrical contractor. NeoTechX does no electrical work itself. Before installation NeoTechX confirms there is space for it, a meter path, a transfer-switch contact where standby generation exists, and an outbound network path or a dedicated cellular link agreed with your IT team.
3. Recommend: read-only reports Available
While recommending, NeoTechX reads your site and sends no commands. Where NeoCore is connected, at each demand peak it records the action NeoShift would have taken and the reduction that action would have produced.
Each report shows, in plain language, which loads coincided to set your peak, what sequencing NeoShift would have applied, and its estimated value. Your team decides whether to act on any finding, through your own BMS or SCADA and under your own operating procedures. Where live monitoring is in place, it is available in NeoPilot, with a weekly summary report.
This step also builds the baseline that later savings are measured against, and tests that baseline on your own data.
What you receive
- A provisional savings case computed on your own data, with no commands sent to your equipment
- The anatomy of each billed peak: which loads, which minutes
- Where NeoCore is connected: what NeoShift would have done, and the estimated effect
- Findings your team may choose to act on through its own systems
- Watch items: power factor against your utility's requirement (90% lagging or better), the BC Hydro winter minimum-charge floor, and the FortisBC 75% billing-demand rule
- Where live monitoring is in place: access in NeoPilot, with a weekly summary report
4. Supervised step tests
Before you are asked to approve anything, NeoShift measures how your equipment actually responds. With your operator present and each test agreed in advance, NeoShift makes one bounded setpoint change on one asset, holds it briefly and returns it. The whole site is watched during the test, and the test stops at once if anything moves faster than predicted.
Step tests replace estimates with measurements: response delay, time constant, how long the process can be held, and the cost of recovery. NeoShift re-fits the savings case to the measurements and shows you any difference from the earlier estimate.
5. Your written sign-off
NeoShift does not start automating on a date. It starts when your building and management leads sign a plan containing:
- The enumerated list of points NeoShift may write, and the range for each
- Permitted bands for controlled variables, excluded equipment, no-action windows, and production states that suspend coordination
- Equipment protection limits per asset: minimum run and off times, rate limits, start frequency, recovery interval
- How each asset returns to normal if anything fails: native expiry, gateway-enforced revert, or a hardwired interlock
- Who is notified of what, and how
- Prerequisites verified: network access control, transfer-switch signal where standby generation exists, installation space
6. Automate, within your limits Pilot
NeoShift is in pilot.
When automating, NeoShift forecasts each billed peak and sequences your approved equipment ahead of it, inside the limits you signed. Every command is designed to pass the guardrail, expire on its own, and be logged with the reason it was issued.
Your operators keep final authority. If anyone changes a setpoint NeoShift controls, NeoShift is designed to release that asset at once and not resume until it is returned to automatic. A declared maintenance state means zero commands to that equipment until your team clears it.
You can ask to switch a site back to monitoring and reporting only, at any time; NeoTechX then suspends automation for that site and the plant returns to its own control. The steps are set out in your agreement.
7. Monthly verification and shared savings
NeoShift measures savings against a counterfactual baseline: a model of what your demand would have been without NeoShift, fitted to 12 to 24 months of history. Savings are reported against demand actually billed, net of any extra energy the coordination caused. Efficiency upgrades you paid for are excluded. The shared-savings fee, indicatively 30% to 40%, applies only to measured savings: if there are no savings, there is no shared-savings fee.
While the automated engine is in development, NeoTechX builds the baseline with you and computes each month's comparison openly, so you see every input and every step of the arithmetic.
How does NeoShift decide what to do?
NeoShift separates planning, execution and enforcement. NeoShift plans a time-bounded operating strategy from interval history, tariff, weather and production patterns. NeoCore on site executes it against live conditions, and keeps working if the connection is lost. A rule-based guardrail with no model inside it can veto any command before it reaches equipment.
NeoShift's edge is designed to move only toward safety. If live conditions differ from the plan, the gateway can end an action early, decline to start one, or re-order actions among the assets the plan named. It cannot curtail an asset the plan did not name or start an economic action on its own.
NeoShift commands slow equipment early and keeps fast equipment in reserve. A setpoint written at 14:15 does not change load at 14:15, so NeoShift times each action by the response it measured on that asset, and re-measures that response as equipment ages.
| Layer | Function | Timescale |
|---|---|---|
| L4 | NeoShift cloud: forecast, strategy, verification | hours to days |
| L3 | NeoCore edge: executes the strategy; may yield; does not originate actions | seconds to minutes |
| L2 | Supervisory write: setpoints only, self-expiring | seconds |
| L1 | Guardrail: fixed rules, no model, veto on every command | every command |
| L0 | Your control and safety systems: not modified, not bypassed | milliseconds |
NeoShift technical specifications
| Item | Specification | Status or basis |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Supervisory peak demand reduction and load shifting: cloud planning, NeoCore execution on site, deterministic guardrail | Pilot |
| Target rates | BC Hydro Medium General Service ($6.07/kW-month) and Large General Service ($13.83/kW-month); FortisBC Commercial ($15.06/kW-month above 40 kW) and Large Commercial ($12.18/kVA-month) | Tariff fact |
| Curtailable load at a qualifying site | Indicatively roughly 100 to 400 kW | Indicative estimate |
| Decision timescale | Minutes, aligned to the utility's demand interval; not a sub-second or frequency-response resource | By design |
| Equipment protocols | Modbus TCP and RTU, BACnet/IP and BACnet MS/TP, OPC UA, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-104 (through NeoCore) | Available |
| Metering | Facility switchgear meter, utility-meter pulse or optical output, or dedicated meter; not the revenue meter's internals | By design |
| Single-master serial buses | Does not attach as a second Modbus RTU master; connects through the system that owns the bus | By design |
| Write method | Episodic setpoints held for an interval; ramped or single-step per controller type; time-bounded and self-reverting | Planned design In development |
| Connectivity loss | Normal, then Autonomous, then Conservative, then Handback | Planned design In development |
| Time | UTC internally; the meter's own interval boundaries used for alignment; daylight saving does not affect expiry | By design |
| Site topologies | One gateway on centralised sites; site controller plus industrial wireless I/O nodes on dispersed or segmented sites | By design |
| Network posture | Outbound-only; mutual TLS, per-device certificates; no listening port, no remote shell | In development Planned design; assessment access agreed with your IT team |
| Device security | Keys in TPM or secure element; storage encrypted at rest; signed updates with offline keys; staged rollout | In development Planned design |
| Zone alignment | IEC 62443 zones and conduits; switch-port access control (802.1X or MAC binding) verified before automation | By design |
| Audit | Every write logged with value, time, strategy, inputs and the constraint check that allowed it; integrity-protected; causal ordering across nodes | Planned design In development |
| Verification | Counterfactual baseline, 12 to 24 months of history, IPMVP-aligned; manual and open for initial deployments | Engine In development |
| Data | Hosted exclusively in Canadian data centres; export in a documented, non-proprietary format by design; retention and return set in the agreement | Design |
| Hardware | A CSA-approved Linux industrial PC chosen with you (NeoTechX recommends only CSA-approved devices); ride-through and EMC suited to the installation | Requirement |
Frequently asked questions
How long does the assessment take?
An assessment from bills and interval data is usually a short desk review. Where live monitoring through NeoCore is useful, it runs for several months, agreed with each customer, because it also builds the baseline used to verify savings later.
Can we act on the recommendations ourselves?
Yes. During Assess and Recommend NeoTechX sends no commands, and the customer's own team decides whether and how to act on each finding, through its own BMS or equipment panels and under its own procedures.
Does NeoShift write anything before automation starts?
Only during supervised step tests: one bounded setpoint change on one asset, agreed in advance and performed with the customer's operator present, then returned. These tests measure real equipment response before the customer is asked to sign off automation.
Can we switch back from automation to reports only?
Yes. A customer can ask to switch a site back to monitoring and reporting only at any time; automation is then suspended for that site and the plant returns to its own control. The steps are set out in the customer agreement.
How are savings verified?
Savings are measured against a counterfactual baseline fitted to 12 to 24 months of history, reported against demand actually billed, net of extra energy caused. For initial deployments the calculation is done openly with the customer.
Start with the free assessment: read-only, no commands.
No software fees, no obligation.
Sources
- BC Hydro Electric Tariff, Rate Schedules 1500, 1600 and 1830, rates effective April 1, 2026; Terms and Conditions section 7.2
- FortisBC Inc. Electric Tariff, Rate Schedules 21 and 30 and Terms and Conditions section 9.4, rates effective January 1, 2026
- NeoTechX service catalogue v4.3, section 5; positioning strategy and commercial model, 2026-10-11
This page describes NeoTechX products and services and how they are designed. It is not an offer, warranty or guarantee of results. Capabilities marked Pilot or In development may change. Fees, performance and data-handling terms are set only in a signed agreement.