Demand response is still in its infancy, but experiments in the two-way, real-time service have shown how much it can transform utilities, one of the most inefficient industries in the country, Edison Electric Institute President Thomas Kuhn said today on a Grid Week panel. Unfortunately, consumer resistance to accepting the service from their utility provider may be holding the service back.
In SmartGridCity, a pilot program in Boulder, Colo., that brings together all the different communications technologies and services into one community, utility Xcel Energy has finished its infrastructure and smart meter rollout and is now in the process of collecting feedback from its initial trials. So far Dick Kelly, president, chairman and CEO of Xcel Energy, has learned that consumers aren’t as amenable to the service as originally anticipated.
via Grid Week: Are utilities the best smart grid services provider?.
