A U.S. Government report shows that consumers can save money and reduce the need for expensive peaking power plants. This is done with advanced meters and demand side management programs. Unfortunately, advanced meters have reached only 4.7 percent of metered customers and oniy 8 percent of electricity customers are in demand side management programs in the U.S. This is a significant increase from 2006, when advanced metering penetration was less than one percent.

Most electricity customers don't really know the price of electricity when they consume it. They only find out when they receive their bills and of course complain. Advanced meters provide customers with the cost information at the time they are about to consumer electricity. That way they can decide to use the electricity or wait until the price drops during a non-peak period of the day.

Advanced Meters
Although the States have been slow to act, that's starting to change. That's because advanced meters and demand side management programs can reduce the peak demand for electricity and avoid building costly power plants that would operate only a few hours every year.

Florida had the largest increase in advanced metering, from less than 1.0 percent installed in 2006 to 10.4 percent in 2008. Cooperatives, municipal utilities, investor-owned utilities, public utility districts, and federal utilities all show increases since 2006. Cooperatives advanced metering efforts were very impressive. Their advanced metering installations increased from 3.8 percent in 2006 to 16.4 percent in 2008.

Demand Response Program
The report [PDF] showed that only 8.0 percent of customers in the United States are in some kind of demand response program. Again, there is plenty of opportunity here for residential electricity customers to contribute and get control their energy costs. There have also been large increases in customer enrollment and the number of entities that offer demand response orograms; for example, the number of entities offering real-time pricing increased significantly since 2006.

Current U.S. demand response programs have reduced electricity consumption by almost 41,000 megawatts, or about 5.8 percent of U.S. peak demand. This represents an increase of about 3,400 MW from the 2006 estimate. The regions of the country with the largest demand response resource contributions as a percent of the national total are the Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, and Southeastern United States.

Colorado, Maryland, and Ohio promoted demand response through legislation and utility regulation in 2008. While Alabama and California, approved time-based rates for customers under their jurisdiction. In addition, multi-state groups spanning the country from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest and Pacific Northwest continue to coordinate across jurisdictions to enhance demand response through research, education, and planning.

Call your electric utility and ask about enrolling in their program. Also see our related articles on demand side management and advanced meters for a more detailed exlanation.