BGE reacts to negative column on smart meters

more. BGE already has by far the most aggressive demand response program in the country targeting about 400,000 of our 1.1 million customers – it will be a real stretch as to whether we can fully reach the ambitious goals we’ve established – and any sort of hope that we can offset the demand growth simply by signing up even more customers is wishful thinking, but not based on anything substantive at this point.

3. There certainly are some aspects of Smart Grid that are less developed than others, such as networked ZigBee communications in the home with newly developed smart appliances, integration with electric vehicles, and the like. However, our foundational premise is fairly simple, and well demonstrated from ours and many other pilots. That is, let customers know when prices and demand are high (through low-tech phone calls and emails, etc.) and incent them through bill credits to reduce their usage. Use the advanced meters to measure the reductions on an hourly basis so we can reward customers based on the level of reduction they choose to take. Nothing real “rocket science” about this concept. Also provide customers with better information about their usage and costs year-round (not just on hot summer days), and the tools to manage and reduce their costs.