VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — Demand response programs for residential customers and small businesses are being hampered by difficulties accessing interval meter data, CPower Energy Management said in a proposed problem/opportunity statement presented to PJM’s Market Implementation Committee Aug. 10.

PJM allows the use of sampling to estimate demand response participation for customers lacking interval meters — also known as smart meters — but requires the use of such meter data for customers that have them.

For smart meter-equipped residential customers serving as annual demand response resources, PJM requires not only usage data for settlements and compliance during events and tests, but data from two prior delivery years to establish a winter peak load and peak load contribution (PLC) to set baselines.

Ken Schisler of CPower said electric distribution companies (EDCs) have made it difficult and expensive for curtailment service providers (CSPs) to obtain the data. In some cases, he said, EDCs lack the information. In other cases, the data is cost prohibitive to obtain for small loads.

The introduction of smart meters has not resulted in the expected increase in DR participation, Schisler said. Demand response is an “underdeveloped resource in PJM,” he said. “I submit one reason for that is data access.”

Cleared demand response capacity has dropped by almost half since peaking at 14,833 MW in delivery year 2015/16. In June’s Base Residual Auction, cleared DR totaled only 8,096 MW.

Paul Sotkiewicz of E-Cubed Policy Associates questioned the need for a rule change. “It doesn’t sound like an insurmountable problem,” he said. “… I’m wondering if this is a solution in search of a problem.”

But Aaron Breidenbaugh of Centrica Business Solutions said his company shared CPower’s concerns. The cost of obtaining meter data is not as big a concern for large customers but “creates significantly higher costs of customer acquisition” for small loads, he said.

CPower’s issue charge proposes that stakeholders consider additional use of sampling as an alternative to data from every small customer.

“Do we need data for every single meter?” Schisler asked. “… Is the juice worth the squeeze?”