Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
[STK]
[IN] OIL UTI
[SU] SVY
TO BUSINESS, ENERGY, AND NATIONAL EDITORS:
Demand Response Exceeds Expectations in Texas During January Grid
Emergency
WASHINGTON, April 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a report to
its Board of Directors today, The Electric Reliability Council of
Texas (ERCOT) announced that demand response providers performed
better than expected-and in excess of their contracted
commitments--during a powerful winter storm, known as the Polar
Vortex, that caused outages at several power plants on January 6,
2014.
The severity of the January 6th storm put ERCOT's grid at risk for
significant failure. According to ERCOT's report, hundreds of Texas
businesses, schools, local governments and individuals participating
in demand response provided 496 megawatts of capacity to the grid
within 46 minutes of being called, an amount equal to the output of an
average sized coal fired power plant. As the report finds, demand
response programs exceeded expectations by delivering 127% of the
power contracted for. This demonstrates once again that demand
response is a fast-acting, responsive resource that can help
independent system operators and electric utilities maintain grid
reliability.
"This event shows that demand response is not just a summer resource,"
said Rick Counihan, Chairman of AEMA. "As a proven year-round
resource, demand response will be available to reduce pressure on the
grid today and in the future, while empowering consumers to make
choices about their energy consumption."
Demand response programs enable consumers to reduce their energy usage
in return for compensation. In addition to directly saving consumers
money, demand response makes the electric grid more efficient, more
reliable, more environmentally friendly, and less expensive according
to The Advanced Energy Management Alliance (AEMA), a coalition of
demand response consumers and providers.
About AEMA: The Advanced Energy Management Alliance (AEMA) is an
association of providers and supporters of demand response united to
overcome barriers to nationwide use of demand response for an
environmentally preferable and more reliable grid. AEMA advocates
policies that empower and compensate customers to manage their energy
usage and make the electric grid more efficient, more reliable, more
environmentally friendly, and less expensive. Members of the Alliance
include Alcoa, Comverge, ELCON, EnerNOC, First Fuel, IPKeys, Johnson
Controls, Landis+Gyr, and Walmart.
CONTACT: Katherine Hamilton, 202-524-8832
SOURCE Advanced Energy Management Alliance (AEMA)
-0- 04/07/2014
CO: Advanced Energy Management Alliance (AEMA)
ST: District of Columbia Texas
IN: OIL UTI
SU: SVY
PRN
-- DC00124 --
0000 04/07/2014 21:15:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
