PLMA Grows to 100 Members

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - April 27, 2016) - PLMA welcomed its 100^th member organization at its April Board meeting, up from 50 members only three years ago. The meeting preceded the 17^th PLMA Spring Conference in San Francisco, which had record-breaking attendance of over 200 electricity industry professionals.

PLMA was founded in 1999 as the Peak Load Management Alliance to be the voice of demand response practitioners. PLMA brings together a community of experts dedicated to sharing knowledge and providing resources to promote inclusiveness in the design, delivery, technology, and management of solutions addressing energy and natural resource integration. PLMA members share expertise to educate each other and explore innovative approaches to demand response programs, price and rate response, regional regulatory issues, and technologies, as energy markets evolve.

"It's a challenging time for the electricity industry and that has helped generate excitement for what PLMA offers its members. But there's a lot more to it than timing," said PLMA Chair Richard Philip of Duke Energy. "At our April Board meeting, we celebrated the deep thinking and hard work of many industry leaders who helped PLMA better understand how demand response and other demand-side management programs can help an electricity utility adapt and thrive in these new market conditions. This work, combined with our collective efforts to produce web-based thought leadership dialogues, facilitate interest group activities, develop training courses, and collaborate with like-minded organizations, has transformed our association's value proposition and raised our industry profile, which has attracted the substantial number of new members and brought record number of attendees to our conference."

Continuing its educational mission, PLMA will present its Demand Response Markets training course on May 11-12 at Nest Labs headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and its Demand Response Program Design and Implementation course on June 29-30 at Comverge headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The highly interactive training courses mentored by utility managers are open to PLMA member and non-member staff alike, but seating is limited to no more than 30 students on a first come, first served basis. 

The 17^th PLMA Fall Conference will be November 8-9, 2016 in Delray Beach, Florida. An industry-wide call for presenters will be announced in May. PLMA's national conferences presented in April and November create a forum where practical experience, ideas, and knowledge are exchanged among those seeking access to a vast network of industry professionals. In general sessions and interest group workshops, members gather to stay abreast of the latest industry trends in load management and to inform the next generation. The agenda and registrant list for the most recent conference may be viewed by anyone at www.peakload.org. The presentation slides are available to conference registrants as well as all staff of member organizations behind an individual profile password. Learn more at www.peakload.org.