ABSTRACT
Demand response/interruptible service is a category of cost-savings programs that will pay people handsomely and in multiple ways for being “first in line” for a possible emergency power curtailment. Leaders who understand it feel like they own a personal moneymaking machine. Many years before the deregulation that began in 2000, utilities had an ad hoc system of taking care of their power supply dilemmas. When they experienced a power emergency, the plan of action was to call a short list of large manufacturers and ask them to reduce their loads to shut down the crisis. Interruptible service rate sheets and formulas are usually eye-crossing in their complexity. They confuse people with legalese. To add to the confusion, there is a big difference between what these rate sheets state will happen and the way utilities actually behave in real emergency scenarios as well as real penalty adjudications.
