Milwaukee, February 3, 2012 — A consortium led by Johnson Controls' EnergyConnect business will to provide demand response services to reduce up to 100 MW of energy use during peak hours for utility customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. This represents the energy needed to power more than 42,000 homes during the highest hours of energy use.
Johnson Controls will lead the consortium to promote demand response program participation for large business customers.
A 2008 Pennsylvania law, Act 129, requires the state's electric utilities with more than 100,000 customers to reduce MWh consumption by 3 percent and reduce system demand 4.5 percent during peak hours by May 31, 2013.
Demand response programs reward electricity users for reducing consumption when alerted by a utility or independent system operator (ISO). Those reductions improve the performance of the regional electric grid, particularly during hot summer months when energy usage increases. Participants are compensated based on how much electric load they commit to curtail when notified by the utility about a peak demand period.
