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PSE starts Bainbridge demand-response pilot
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Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has begun a two-year demand-response pilot program on Bainbridge Island to test technology for automatically shedding load from electric water and space heaters during peak demand periods.
About 700 Bainbridge homes will be fitted with devices to control electric space and water heaters (see DOE graphic at left for simplified description of how electric water heaters work). PSE will pay homeowners who participate in the program $50 for each full year in which they are enrolled. Homeowners interested in participating need a broadband Internet connection, as well as electric space and water heat. Call PSE at 877-287-3461 for more information.
PSE projects that the pilot will reduce winter demand by 1.6 kilowatts per home, or a little more than 1 megawatt for all participants. PSE said that demand response would take pressure off the utility's Bainbridge system, which is near capacity, and could allow PSE to postpone building a substation.
The control devices will use two-way Internet communications to automatically reduce space and water heat appliances' energy consumption for brief periods a few days each year to reduce peak demand on PSE's Bainbridge system. Typically in the Northwest, demand peaks on winter mornings, but PSE has noted that on some parts of its grid, summer demand peaks are beginning to occur as a result of air conditioning loads.
"It is a step towards a far more intelligent electric power system that allows our residents to be active participants in improving our power grid's efficiency and reliability," said Hilary Franz, a member of the Bainbridge Island City Council and head of the island's Community Energy Task Force.
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