News Release Details

Portland, OR (PRWEB) July 06, 2011

Portland General Electric (NYSE:POR), together with RTP Controls, is now offering a new automated demand response program to business customers to help them lower their energy costs by reducing their energy use when demand is particularly high — mainly during extremely hot summer or cold winter days.

The new Energy Partner℠ automated demand response program will be managed by RTP Controls and is designed to be an economically and environmentally responsible way to respond to occasional and temporary periods of time — about 80 hours each year — when energy use across the region is extremely high.

"Typically during those peak times, utilities often have to turn to their most expensive power sources, including bringing additional power plants online, to serve customers," said Carol Dillin, PGE's vice president of customer strategies & business development. "With this new program we can partner with customers to meet that demand at a significantly lower cost, which benefits all PGE customers and the environment."

Participating Energy Partner program customers will be compensated for energy reduction measures such as dimming their facility lighting or cycling their air conditioning units on and off for a short period of time. For example, on a hot summer day, a local supermarket may announce over its public-address system it is reducing its lighting for an hour.

In the next three years, PGE and RTP expect the program will reduce energy demand by up to 50 megawatts of capacity — the equivalent of switching off 500,000 100-watt light bulbs during times of particularly high energy use.

PGE selected RTP via a request-for-proposal process for automated demand response. RTP will recruit participants for the program and provide its proprietary automated demand response technology platform, the GridLogic System™, in facilities enrolled in the program.

"Everyone at RTP is excited to bring our technology and the benefits of demand response to PGE's customers," said Mark Lane, RTP's president and CEO. "Our GridLogic System™ provides PGE customers with significant value through innovative energy management tools and gives customers the opportunity to contribute to their community's grid reliability."

The Energy Partner program is one of PGE's Smart Power℠ options for PGE customers that tap into technology designed to help meet growing energy demand and reduce environmental impact while helping build a stronger, more reliable and smarter energy grid for the future.

For more information about PGE's Energy Partner program, visit http://www.rtpcontrols.com/public/energypartner.html.

About Portland General Electric
Portland General Electric, headquartered in Portland, Ore., is a fully integrated electric utility that serves approximately 821,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Oregon. For more information visit http://www.PortlandGeneral.com.

About RTP Controls
RTP Controls, Inc. provides fully automated demand response and dynamic price control solutions for commercial, institutional, and industrial facilities across North America. RTP Controls' commercially proven smart grid technology, the GridLogic System™, enables utilities and grid operators to leverage aggregate demand reduction resources as energy supply resources to address grid reliability, dynamic pricing, supply planning, and renewable power integration. For more information visit http://www.rtpcontrols.com.

# # #

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8623097.htm

News Provided by Acquire Media