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Remember you can follow @PowerSmart on Twitter to receive a Daily Price Report that has the highest and lowest prices for the following day.

On days that have a high price alert there is a special message.

If you are an avid twitter user, and you are interested in getting the prices sent to you, follow @PowerSmart.

Power Hungry Set Top Boxes to be Regulated?

The Energy Department is considering to place new restrictions on the energy consumption of set top cable boxes and digital recorders. This would be similar to regulations that dramatically improved the efficiency of refrigerators. The announcement comes after the National Resource Defense Council published a new study of the usage of set top boxes. Their results are fairly staggering, and it shows how targeting set top boxes can make a big impact to both our energy costs and the environment.

Like a refrigerator, the television set top box is generally running at full power 24 hours a day. When the television is off and nothing is recording, these devices will still operate at a similar energy demand. Two-thirds of their demand for power comes when the consumer is not using the device. Since the companies who are supplying these boxes do not pay for the electricity, there is little incentive for them to invest in changing their products.

According to the NRDC study:

In 2010, set-top boxes in the United States consumed approximately 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the annual output of nine average (500 MW) coal-fired power plants. The electricity required to operate all U.S. boxes is equal to the annual household electricity consumption of the entire state of Maryland, results in 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and costs households more than $3 billion each year.

The NRDC study has also proposed some solutions and picked out the worst types of set top boxes. In some cases they have a greater energy demand than a new energy efficient refrigerators and 42" LCD HDTVs.

Check out the very informative, 5-page study here: http://www.nrdc.org/energy/files/settopboxes.pdf

PSP Customers Have Saved $4 Million in Bill Savings

The Power Smart Pricing program surpassed a major milestone last week when its cumulative bill savings for the roughly 12,000 customers reached over $4 Million. This is great news for our participants but its also great news for all those communities. PSP households have some extra cash on hand for those more important things in life like education, health care or the simple things like an extra topping on that large pizza.

Great job everyone!!

High Price Alerts (6/7-6/8)

We had our first high price alerts with the new price threshold over the past couple days as temperatures reached well into the 90s. Three straight days of high temperatures in the middle of the week is a recipe for high prices. Prices topped out at 10 cents per kWh from 1pm-5pm on 6/8. This is just about the highest price  we saw in 2010.

Don't forget about pre-cooling! The best way to shift your usage away from high prices. http://www.powersmartpricing.org/tools/summer-tips/precooling-your-home/

Unfortunately we had some technical glitches with our email alert system and some of the alerts were delayed. We apologize for the inconvenience. We are working with our technical provider to ensure that this will not happen again.

The website also reached highs in web traffic. Tuesday June 7th, and Wednesday June 8th, had the highest visits to the PSP website ever. Clearly our participants were reacting to the high temperatures and prices to seek our more information. The behavior of how customers react to high prices is a key topic of conversation to the ICC and other public utility commissions around the country as they are trying to determine the value and benefit of dynamic pricing programs. PSP customers are cutting edge, smart and proving again and again that dynamic pricing "works."

It looks like some cooler weather is moving in and the prices have dropped a little as well. Look for even lower prices tomorrow and through the weekend.

New Ameren IL Flat Rate Prices

Ameren Illinois has finished its rate filing for its flat rate prices. The new energy supply prices DO NOT affect the prices for Power Smart Pricing. Prices went up in all rate classes by about a tenth of a cent per kWh. Below is the table of the new prices.

All prices are in cents per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Ameren Standard Rates (effective 6/1/11)

	Rate Zone III (AmerenIP)	Rate Zone II (AmerenCILCO)	Rate Zone I (AmerenCIPS)
Summer (June, July, August, and September)	5.011	5.019	5.045
Non-Summer, usage 0 - 800 kWh	5.733	6.020	6.057*
Non-Summer, over 800 kWh Non-Space Heat	5.733	3.852	6.057*
Non-Summer, over 800 kWh Space Heat**	1.881	N/A	3.434*

*Former AmerenUE customers now served by Rate Zone I (formerly AmerenCIPS) in the Metro East: 0-800 kWh non-summer is 6.057¢/kWh and over 800 kWh non-summer is 2.024¢/kWh, regardless of heating type.

** Applies only to existing premises served under Rate Zone I (formerly AmerenCIPS) Rider 5 or Rate Zone III's (formerly AmerenIP) space heat provision under SC2 as of 1/1/07. The Space Heat category is not available for new electric heat installations.