States across the country are confronting a shift to a “peakier” pattern in the use of electricity—meaning the highest levels of daily demand increasingly are greater than the average level of daily demand—that is driving up overall power costs. Over the past two decades, many areas of the country have seen an increase in their annual average hourly demand for electricity and annual highest peak-hour demand. Aligning Energy Efficiency and Demand Response to Lower Peak Electricity Demand, Reduce Costs and Address Reliability Concerns describes policies and programs governors can implement to achieve cost savings and reliability benefits and address the peakier electricity use patterns.
