Smart meters now represent 4.7% of installed meters in the U.S., up from 1% in 2006, according to a new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) report on demand response and advanced metering programs.
The report charts the expansion of these energy-saving programs and progress on overcoming regulatory and financial hurdles.
However, it also points to continuing obstacles, such as the limited number of retail customers on time-based rates, restrictions on customer access to meter data and the scale of financial investment necessary to deploy enabling technologies during an economic downturn.
FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, who leads the Commission’s efforts in the Collaborative Dialogue on Demand Response with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, noted the link between demand response and smart grid technologies. "Demand response is clearly the ‘killer application’ for the smart grid," he said. "By our FERC report gauging progress and identifying continuing barriers to demand response, we can effectively assess our progress in deploying essential smart grid technologies."
Market penetration of advanced metering programs has risen substantially throughout the country, with the largest increase coming in Florida.
On the demand response side, 8% of energy consumers in the United States are in some kind of demand response program and the potential demand response resource contribution from all such U.S. programs is close to 41,000 megawatts (MW), or 5.8%, of U.S. peak demand. This represents an increase of about 3,400 MW from the 2006 estimate. The largest demand response resource contributions are from the Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern and Southeastern regions of the U.S.
The report also notes that in the past year, Colorado, Maryland, Ohio and other states promoted demand response through utility regulation legislation. Alabama and California led states in approving time-based rates for consumers. And multi-state groups from the Mid-Atlantic to the Pacific Northwest are coordinating across jurisdictions to enhance demand response through research, education and planning.
The report, 2008 Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering can be viewed at the link below.
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