Dive Brief:

• Pennsylvania utilities is preparing to implement time-of-use pricing programs this summer, leveraging hundreds of thousands of smart meters to help consumers reduce energy use during peak hours and lower their bills.
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Duquesne Light could have up to 200,000 residential customers eligible for the program this summer. In Philadelphia, PECO has almost 5,000 enrolled.
• Duquesne Light is running a meter exchange program, and says it has exchanged more than 180,000 older devices for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) that allows for more data and two-way communication.

Dive Insight:

All around the country, states with significant AMI installed are considering time-of-use rates to leverage the more granular measurements and the potential to shift load. And now in Pennsylvania, customers can participate in TOU programs this summer which aim to give them additional control over their bills and usage.

“This is a program that's only made possible because of our new smart meters,” Krysia Kubiak, director of state regulatory strategy and government affairs for Duquesne Light, told the news outlet. “It will be a way to test their capabilities and get a lot of information for our customers and when they're using electricity. ... It's also good for the environment, because if we take off those highest-peaking days, you're using less resources, less generation."

While the installation of a smart meter is not optional, the TOU pricing program is optional.

In 2014, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District published the results of a two-year pilot, finding the utility was able to shift up to 10% of its peak load to shoulder hours. California is moving to make TOU rates standard. 

A report last year from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory focused on 10 utilities found time-of-use rates growing in popularity, and that when tied to demand response programs, for critical-peak, event-driven demand response programs, average demand reductions ranged from 11% to 30% for both.

The Tennessee Valley Authority also said last year it is also considering changing the way it charges for power as it looks to flatten out the utility's demand curves. In Michigan, Consumers Energy and DTE Energy last year were authorized to begin TOU rates, though the changes were expected to benefit commercial and industrial power consumers, rather than residential.