"Two-way communication between NStar and consumers will also allow the company to eventually ask customers to help reduce electricity consumption during peak-demand periods.... when the utility has a need to reduce load for whatever reason"
Like in the summer when its hot out?
"The EPA attributed the decrease to fewer days with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees"
Oh.
"Utilities plan to let consumers watch energy use" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | March 31, 2009
Thousands of Massachusetts electric utility customers could be using cutting-edge technology next year that will let them monitor electricity use, increase efficiency, and make it easier to access renewable energy.
Four utilities this week are expected to file proposals with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, outlining "smart grid" pilot programs, which are required under the Green Communities Act signed last year by Governor Deval Patrick. The proposals must be filed by tomorrow and be approved by the state.
Stephen Connors, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Energy Initiative, said environmentalists and others have been pushing for smart-grid technology for over a decade because it will enable consumers to use less electricity and benefit the environment....
Under National Grid's two-year pilot proposal, approximately 15,000 meters that read energy consumption almost in real-time would be installed in homes and businesses in a 30-square-mile area of Worcester that includes Webster and Tatnuck squares, Airport Hill, and the city's northwest area. Customers could access the information via the Internet, by a thermostat readout, or through text messaging, and use the data to change their consumption patterns....
The company's pilot program - the largest of the four proposed - is expected to cost consumers about $57 million, or less than a dollar a month for each of National Grid's 1.3 million electric customers. But program participants are expected to save 5 percent, or about $70 a year, on their energy bills.
This is what they PROMISE!! See Obama's Face Fart for more.
NStar's plan, meanwhile, calls for partnering with Tendril Networks Inc., a Colorado energy-efficiency company, to provide nearly 3,000 customers in Newton and Hopkinton with energy-consumption information - accessible on the Web - gathered from electricity meters every 15 seconds. Two-way communication between NStar and consumers will also allow the company to eventually ask customers to help reduce electricity consumption during peak-demand periods.
"The customer could say, 'All right, when the utility has a need to reduce load for whatever reason, send a signal to my smart thermostat,' " said Doug Horan, an NStar senior vice president.
Western Massachusetts Electric Co.'s pilot proposal concentrates on 600 to 800 low-income customers in the Springfield area who would be offered several different options. One features a discounted rate for the first 300 kilowatt hours of power they use each month, and a higher rate thereafter - similar to a cellphone plan that costs more for extra minutes.
Company spokeswoman Sandra Ahearn said the goal is "to encourage conservation" and "give our low-income customers some valuable tools to reduce their energy consumption and thereby save."
Seriously, since when the hell did business ever give a rat's ass about the poor?
And the Globe expects us to buy this slop-shit?
State and utility officials said they hope such programs revolutionize the electric grid.
That is what the AGENDA-PUSHING GOAL really is!!!!
"We think it can save an enormous amount of money for the consumers," said Ian Bowles, secretary of the state's Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Bowles said he envisions a smart grid that rewards customers with lower bills if they use more electricity during off-peak hours.
Well, there is a REASON it is PEAK HOURS!
Because PEOPLE are UP DOING THINGS!!
I work enough at night, asshole!!!
