FERC Assessment of Demand Response and Advanced Metering 2008
According to a report released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in December 2008, advanced metering penetration and potential peak load reduction from demand response have increased since 2006.
The results of a 2008 FERC Demand Response and Advanced Metering survey “indicate advanced metering penetration (i.e., the ratio of advanced meters to all installed meters) has reached about 4.7 percent for the United States.”
The report noted that “[m]arket penetration differs by type of organization. While cooperatives, municipal utilities, investor-owned utilities, public utility districts, and federal utilities all show increases since 2006, the high penetration levels achieved by cooperatives in the past two years is particularly impressive. Cooperatives’ advanced metering penetration increased from 3.8 percent in 2006 to 16.4 percent in 2008.”
According to research conducted by NRECA, approximately half of cooperatives have installed at least some advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) on their systems, and some 30 percent of cooperatives have begun to integrate their AMI with other systems on their grid such as their outage management systems (OMS) and their geographic information systems (GIS).
The report spotlighted significant gains since 2006. “The potential demand response resource contribution from all U.S. demand response programs is estimated to be close to 41,000 MW, or about 5.8 percent of U.S. peak demands. This represents an increase of about 3,400 MW from the 2006 estimate.”
In comments to the FERC, NRECA has urged that the aim of both demand response programs and retail rate structures must always be on providing consumers with good, reliable, electric service at the lowest reasonable rates.
The report includes a recommendation that the FERC “continue current coordination with NARUC [National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissions] on finding demand response solutions, with a focus on aligning retail demand response programs and time-based rates with wholesale market designs.” While approximately a third of cooperatives have some form of time-based rates for at least some of their members and more co-ops are considering them, NRECA has expressed concern that some rate structures would expose consumers directly to wholesale market risk and volatility.