Today, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced the results of two studies demonstrating consumers and information technology can play an active role in managing the grid. The Pacific Northwest GridWise Demonstration Project found that advanced technologies enable consumers to be active participants in improving power grid efficiency and reliability, while saving money in the process. The Olympic Peninsula Project found homeowners are willing to adjust their individual energy use based on price signals provided via information technology tools.

In the Olympic Peninsula Project’s study, 112 homeowners received new electric meters, as well as thermostats, water heaters and dryers connected via Invensys Controls home gateway devices to IBM software.

Through the software, the homeowners were able to customize devices to a desired level of comfort or economy and automatically responded to changing electricity prices in five-minute intervals. They received updated pricing information via the Internet and a "virtual" bank account was established for each household.  

During the study, the money saved by adjusting home energy consumption in collaboration with needs of the grid was converted into real money kept by the homeowners.

When the study ended, it was concluded that the participants who responded to real-time prices reduced peak power use by 15 percent.

"As demand for electricity continues to grow, Smart Grid technologies such as those demonstrated in the Olympic Peninsula area will play an important role in ensuring a continued delivery of safe and reliable power to all Americans," said DOE Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Kevin Kolevar. "The department remains committed to working with industry to research, develop and deploy cutting-edge technologies to power our electric grid and help maintain robust economic growth."

The second study, the Grid Friendly Appliance Project demonstrated that everyday household appliances can automatically reduce energy consumption at critical moments when they are fitted with controllers that sense stress on the grid.

In this study, Grid Friendly Appliance (GFA) controllers were embedded in dryers and water heaters in 150 homes in Washington and Oregon. The GFA controller is a small electronic circuit board which detects and responds to stress on the electricity grid. When stress is detected, the controller automatically turns off specific functions like the heating element in the dryer.

The study found that Grid Friendly Appliance controllers have the technical capacity to act as a shock absorber for the grid and can prevent or reduce the impact of power outages. Such events occurred once a day on average, each lasting for up to a few minutes. The appliances responded reliably and participants reported little to no inconvenience. The vast majority of homeowners in the study stated they would be willing to purchase an appliance configured with such grid-responsive controls.

On average, consumers who participated in the project saved approximately 10 percent on their electricity bills.