Washington (Platts)--3Feb2011/328 pm EST/2028 GMT
The use of advanced meters and the potential for demand response in the US in 2009 increased "significantly" from 2007, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff said in a report Thursday. The report found that advanced meters accounted for 8.7% of all electricity meters in the US in 2009, compared with a 4.7% in 2007. The highest penetration levels are in the upper Midwest, West and Texas, FERC staff found. As was the case in the last survey, electric cooperatives had the highest concentration of advanced meters. In surveying advanced metering, FERC staff adopted the definition used by the Energy Information Administration, which views advanced meters as those that measure and record electricity usage at hourly intervals or more frequently and provide that data to consumers and energy companies at least daily. According to the report, more than 500 entities reported offering demand response programs in the US. The potential contribution from demand response programs is estimated at more than 58,000 MW, or about 7.6% of US peak demand, FERC said. This is an increase of about 17,000 MW from the 2007 report. The regions with the largest estimated demand response are the Midwest-to-Mid-Atlantic region, the upper Midwest and the Southeast. The report is based on responses from 1,750 utilities, electric cooperatives and power marketers out of about 3,400 that were invited to participate. --Esther Whieldon, esther_whieldon@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Electric Power Daily. See more information at http://bit.ly/ElectricPowerDaily