National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid to be Held in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Demand Response Coordinating Committee (DRCC) today announced that a National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid will be held in Washington, DC, on June 23-24.

The DRCC announced that, among other areas, the National Town Meeting would be focused on implementing the National Action Plan on Demand Response and Smart Grid required by Congress in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). FERC is presently developing the Plan and the Act calls for FERC and DOE to work together to implement it.  Another focus area, according to the DRCC, will be a review of progress on the DOE smart grid grant programs.

The National Town Meeting is a non-profit event known for featuring a large number of roundtable sessions where all of the latest business and policy developments are discussed and debated.  No other event brings together all parts of the DR & Smart Grid community—utilities, policymakers, technology companies, ISOs and stakeholders—and puts them all in the same room if not at the same table to talk about customer acceptance, cybersecurity, interoperability and other important issues.

At the National Town Meeting held in Washington last year, over 400 members of the demand response and smart grid community came together to hear from such keynote speakers as Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman of FERC; Garry Brown, Chairman of the NYS Public Service Commission; top leaders from DOE and EPA; and Executives from smart grid companies like Google and Microsoft as well as utilities like Ameren, PG&E, National Grid and Southern California Edison. Close to 50 different utilities and state commissions were represented by at least one attendee and some had multiple participants.

The 2010 National Town Meeting—the 7th to be held—will also be focused on information sharing and dissemination, and it will feature multiple tracks of presentations on case studies, program deployments, and technology demonstrations.

Dan Delurey, Executive Director of the DRCC, said, "The 2010 National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid promises to continue to be the national forum for bringing together the DR & Smart Grid community so they can share experiences and learn from each other.  In addition to all of the key issues to discuss, this year will be particularly important as FERC will have just completed its National Action Plan on Demand Response and sent it to Congress.  The National Town Meeting will be the first opportunity to talk about how to put the Plan into action.  We hope all members of the community will attend and help in that effort."

Registration for the 2010 National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid opens on March 15, 2010. More information on the upcoming as well as on past National Town Meetings can be found here: www.smartgridtownmeeting.com.

The DRCC is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the development and exchange of information and expertise about demand response and smart grid. Its members include Ameren, American Electric Power, Arizona Public Service, DTE Energy, ISO New England, Landis+Gyr, Midwest ISO, National Grid, NYSERDA, Pacific Gas & Electric, PJM Interconnection, Progress Energy, Salt River Project, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, Tennessee Valley Authority, Viridity Energy and Wal-Mart. More information on the DRCC can be found at www.demandresponsecommittee.org.

The DRCC is the sponsor of the 2010 National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid, to be held in Washington, DC, on June 23-24.  For more information, go to www.smartgridtownmeeting.com.

SOURCE Demand Response Coordinating Committee