Like most western utilities, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has been faced by extremely high wholesale costs of electricity over the past year. Unlike most of those utilities, however, PSE has been able to take actions to deal with the high-cost environment, using the automated meter reading (AMR) system it already had in place. Some time ago, the utility began posting its customers' daily energy consumption patterns on the internet and in bill stuffers, strictly for informational purposes. They were astounded with the response: Customers voluntarily cut back energy use during peak periods, and PSE was able to shave its peak demand by 5 percent.
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