LMS: A Member of the FSC Group
The FSC Group
Calendar of Events
  • February 10, 2010: Josh Bode presents "Understanding Customer Decisions Associated with Default Dynamic Pricing" at AESP's 20th National Conference & Expo in Tucson, AZ. In May 2008, San Diego Gas & Electric placed the majority of its non-residential customers who had interval meters on a critical peak pricing tariff. If they did not migrate within 45 days, they remained on the tariff for at least 12 months. This paper compares the characteristics of customers who stayed on the rate with those who left, and examines the drivers of those decisions. See http://www.aesp.org/associations/5980/files/National2010Agenda.cfm for additional information.

  • February 9, 2010: Stephen George, PhD presents "Estimating Hourly Loads for 50 States (by Customer Segment)" at AESP's 20th National Conference & Expo in Tucson, AZ. This presentation focuses on the lack of accurate estimates of hourly loads as a common shortcoming of many DR plans. This thought-provoking presentation summarizes analysis conducted as part of the FERC National Assessment of Demand Response Potential that combined load research data from 21 utilities with data on annual use, weather conditions, and air conditioning saturations in order to estimate hourly loads, by customer segment, for the US. See http://www.aesp.org/associations/5980/files/National2010Agenda.cfm for additional information.

  • February 8, 2010: Freeman, Sullivan & Co. will be hosting the reception in Expo Hall at AESP's 20th National Conference & Expo in Tucson, AZ. Dr. Michael Sullivan, Dr. Stephen George, Josh Bode, Daniel Engel and Paul Mangasarian will be attending from Freeman, Sullivan & Co. See http://www.aesp.org/associations/5980/files/National2010Agenda.cfm for additional information.

  • December 10, 2009: Population Research Systems will be sponsoring this year’s dinner at the Pacific Chapter of American Association for Public Opinion Research conference, “Public Opinion and How it Shapes Public Policy in an Economic Downturn.” Dr. Michael J. Sullivan, Chairman; Caren Leong, Director of Research Services; and Kenric Erickson, Senior Project Manager will be attending from PRS. See http://www.papor.org/files/2009/2009conference.shtml for conference information.

  • November 5-6, 2009: Dr. Stephen George will chair the conference on Smart Pricing for a Smart Grid World, which will be held in San Francisco, CA. This is the only conference focused entirely on the challenges of designing and implementing time-based pricing for retail electricity customers. Dr. George opens the conference by providing a broad overview of the key issues that impact customer enrollment in and load response associated with time-based pricing. View the conference agenda (PDF).

  • September 22-25, 2009: Josh Bode of Freeman, Sullivan & Co., along with Bashar Kellow, Claude Godin and Joe O'Malley presents "The Metering Design and Results Obtained From Real Time Demonstration of PG&E's Ancillary Services Pilot." The presentation will describe a pilot for using PG&E's air conditioner direct control program to provide spinning reserves. The pilot has three primary goals: determine the response time of the PG&E load control system when simulating spinning reserves, determine the load reduction that can be obtained under different operating conditions, and identify the appropriate design for telemetry, data management, and displays that provide minute by minute measurement. See http://www.loadresearchonline.com/events/default.asp?ID=80 for conference information.

  • September 22-25, 2009: Josh Schellenberg of Freeman, Sullivan & Co. presents "An Evaluation of California's Base Interruptible Program" at the Fall 2009 Western Load Research Conference in San Diego, CA. The presentation includes both ex post and ex ante load impact estimates for the BIP program, as a whole, and for customers from each of California's three major investor-owned utilities. See http://www.loadresearchonline.com/events/default.asp?ID=80 for conference information.

  • September 2-3, 2009: FSC's Dan Engel was invited by the Association of Energy Services Professionals to provide their "Principles of Demand-Side Management" two day training session at Southern California Edison. Along with a co-trainer, Dan shared his insights gained over 25 years of experience in the DSM field with an audience of approximately 30 SCE employees. The topics covered by Dan included insights into a historical perspective regarding DSM's maturation, program design and implementation, marketing, regulatory issues and other pragmatic topics.

  • August 20, 2009: Michael J. Sullivan, PhD discusses using experiments to foster innovation and improve the effectiveness of energy efficiency programs at the AESP Brown Bag Seminar, What Have We Learned About Behavior and Energy? Lessons Learned from the California Public Utilities Commission's Behavior and Energy White Papers. See http://aesp.org/cde.cfm?event=268101 for Brown Bag information.

  • August 12-14, 2009: Josh Bode presents "How Well do Pricing Pilots Predict Actual Program Impacts" at the 2009 International Energy Program Evaluation Conference in Portland OR. This poster session informs the debate on whether pricing pilots provide reliable estimates of actual program impacts upon implementation by comparing load reductions from the first large scale deployment of pure critical peak pricing in North America to predicted impacts based on pilot data – after accounting for differences in temperature, prices, central air conditioning penetration and low-income customer participation. See http://www.iepec.org/IEPECHome.htm?agenda_brochure_2009.htm for conference information.

  • August 3, 2009: Josh Bode presents "Model Objectives, Estimation Framework and Model Design" during a joint webinar with The Brattle Group and Global Energy Partners at the FERC National DR Assessment. View the presentation (PDF).

  • July 13-14, 2009: Stephen George is chairing a session entitled "What Have We Learned Recently About Customer Interest In and Response to Time-Based Pricing?" at the National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid in Washington, DC. See http://www.demandresponsetownmeeting.com/home/ for conference information.

  • July 13-14, 2009: Josh Bode presents "SDG&E's Default Dynamic Tariff for Commercial and Industrial Customers – Who Stayed and Who Opted Out?" at the National Town Meeting on Demand Response and Smart Grid in Washington, DC. See http://www.demandresponsetownmeeting.com/home/ for conference information.

  • June 8-11, 2009: Stephen George, PhD will sit on a panel at the Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) Collaborative Workshop in Santa Clara, CA. See http://www.connectivityweek.com/2009/#track_247 for workshop details. View the presentation (PDF).

  • June 8-9, 2009: Michael Sullivan, PhD presents "Behavioral Assumptions Underlying Energy Efficiency Programs, and Their Impact on Fostering Industrial Energy Efficiency" at the Superior Energy Performance Initiative, Measurement and Verification Workshop in Washington, DC. View the full white paper (PDF).

  • May 20, 2009: Michael J. Sullivan, Ph.D. presents "Using Experiments to Foster Innovation and Improve the Effectiveness of Energy Efficiency Programs" in San Francisco, CA. View the final white paper, and the two-page summary of the white paper (PDF).

  • March 29-31, 2009: Michael J. Sullivan, Ph.D. presents "Impacts of Behavioral Assumptions on Energy Efficiency Program Design and Development – Badly Needed Program Innovations and How to Get There" (PDF) at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) and the Consortium for Energy Efficiency (CEE) 13th annual National Symposium on Market Transformation. The symposium will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. See http://www.aceee.org/conf/mt09/index.htm for more information on the symposium.

  • February 6, 2009: Michael J. Sullivan, Ph.D. presents "Behavioral Assumptions Underlying Energy Efficiency Programs for Businesses" in San Francisco, CA. View the final white paper, a two-page summary of the white paper, and presentation slides.

  • January 29, 2009: Michael J. Sullivan, Ph.D. and Susan Buller, Pacific Gas & Electric, present "Impacts of Information on Consumer Attitudes, Opinions and Choices Related to Rooftop Solar Electric Systems" at AESP's National Conference in San Diego, California. View the final paper (PDF).

  • January 28, 2009: Stephen S. George, Ph.D. and Michael Alexander, Pacific Gas & Electric, present "Impact Evaluation of Pacific Gas & Electric's SmartRate Dynamic Tariff" at AESP's National Conference in San Diego, California. See http://aesp.org/cde.cfm?event=218869 for conference information.

  • November 18, 2008: Michael J. Sullivan, Ph.D. presents "Assumptions Underlying Non-Residential Programs" at the Behavior, Energy & Climate Change Conference on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 in Sacramento, California. See http://piee.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/htm/Behavior/becc_conference.php for program information.

  • October 15 and 16, 2008: Michael J. Sullivan, Ph.D., Gregory Reardon, P.E., and T.J. Hartfield, P.E. present "Customer PQ Needs Assessment Interview Review" at the 2008 North American Power Quality Interest Group Workshop in Biloxi, Mississippi, October 15 and 16, 2008. See http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/info/summary.aspx?e=59877a09-18b0-4b11-9cce-a2291265d592

  • August 6, 2008: Michael J. Sullivan speaks at the 2008 Power Quality Applications (PQA) and Advanced Distribution Automation (ADA) Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

    The conference, sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute and FirstEnergy, is focused on taking an in-depth, real-world look at the past, present and future of Power Quality and Distribution Automation. Dr. Sullivan's presentation (which was co-authored by Alabama Power's Greg Reardon) contributes to this goal by reviewing the results of a recent study based on power quality, power reliability, and outage cost customer interviews conducted by Alabama and Mississippi Power account representatives.

LMS FSC PRS