January 09, 2008 Global warming is a hot topic in today’s news.
People are seeking ways to save energy and protect the
environment. Reducing household energy consumption is one
effective way to slow the trend toward global warming. Utilities
have successfully implemented demand response programs for
commercial and industrial consumers. Now more and more energy
companies, such as San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Burbank
Power and Water (BPW), are switching residential consumers’ old
mechanical meters to new smart digital meters, in order to
implement demand response programs in the residential sector
(see “Developing Affordable Smart Thermostats,” p. 16). These
smart meters connect the utility to the home over a network.
They can help consumers monitor and control their energy
consumption, and help utilities decrease peak demand, reducing
the need to use or build more inefficient and dirty power plants
that come online only to meet peak loads. To read complete
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