Honeywell International last week rolled out a new digital programmable thermostat that it says is specifically designed to increase customer participation in utility-sponsored demand response programs-a claim the company said it would prove through an ambitious deployment effort with Baltimore Gas & Electric to install the new device in hundreds of thousands of households.rnMinneapolis-based Honeywell and BG&E say they expect to enroll an estimated 420,000 of the utility's customers in the program over an extended period, targeting 50 percent of BGE's customer base with central air conditioning. That success rate would be about 20 to 30 percent above typical demand response participation, the companies said.rnIf the 50 percent target is met, it would make BG&E's demand response program one of the nation's largest to date, with the utility hoping to reduce more than 600 megawatts of peak energy use by 2012.
展开▼
