The industry demands better demand response

The promise and hype surrounding the Smart Grid far exceeds its current capabilities. In no area is this truer than with Demand Response (DR) programs for the commercial building sector, which is responsible for 20 percent of energy demand and emissions in the United States. These concentrated pools of demand are a nightmare for ever-more strained utility grids, especially in major cities. As a result, utilities have created DR programs to provide financial incentives for building owners to reduce energy consumption during peak periods. This paper explores what these programs currently entail and why they are not working. It then presents and discusses an alternative that can break the major barriers to adoption of the Smart Grid - moving from a manual to the Optimized Demand Response system.