Meeting demand   Published In: Intelligent Utility Magazine
March/April 2009   THE CONCEPT OF DEMAND RESPONSE (DR) HAS BEEN
AROUND FOR A LONG TIME. IN the 1990s, it was called demand side
management. In the mid-1990s, a number of what we now call smart
homes and at least two fully automated subdivisions were built -
one in Arkansas and another in Georgia. They were ahead of their
time then. Their time may be about to arrive.  DR is a means of
reducing consumption of electricity on an interconnected grid.
Businesses, industries and individual residential consumers are
asked to reduce consumption and are provided technological tools
to make this happen. It has been happening fairly routinely at
the commercial and industrial (C&I) level for some time now,
especially in places like California and the Northeastern states
where electrical supply sometimes doesn't meet demand,
especially at peak usage times - usually on hot summer days when
air conditioning is in widespread use.  Several companies such
as Comverge,