|
|
 |
|
Viewing report
|
|
|
|
The Latest Mass-Market Demand-Response Technologies: 2004 Thermostat and Switch Update
E SOURCE, Sep 2004, Pages: 15
The first two-way thermostats emerged onto the demand-response scene several years ago, as utility program managers were seeking a customer-friendly technology that could perform load control tasks and provide reliable verification of load-shedding. Many utilities sponsored pilots and some even rolled out the technology to thousands of customers. The features of two-way thermostats represented a dramatic improvement over the one-way thermostats and switches most utilities were using for mass-market load control programs.
The utilities that are using two-way thermostats have generally been pleased with them, but high costs and a few other problems still stand in the way of their widespread use. In response, some utilities are targeting small business customers for their two-way thermostat programs, because energy providers can get more load reduction per thermostat from these customers. Other utilities are thinking about using a small number of two-way thermostats in a larger deployment of one-way technologies to obtain statistically significant feedback on their programs.
Today, vendors are designing switches with more intelligence as well as smart one-way thermostats that offer some of the features that their more costly two-way cousins provide. The newest switches help eliminate free-riders and can verify load reduction. In the near term, it would appear that these less-expensive new technologies that offer capabilities similar to those of two-way thermostats are positioned to capture a larger share in some residential demand-response markets. But for small business load control programs or for utilities that need complete data verification for load control events, two-way thermostats are tough to beat.
We examine how two-way thermostats for load control are being used in the field and look at technical developments that can help eliminate free-riders and verify load reduction. We also assess the potential for near-term price reductions for the devices.
|
|
|
|
