California commissioners last week approved a ruling that opens the door for programs that would allow utility customers to adjust their electricity use in response to price signals.

In late June, the Energy Division (ED) of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recommended in a white paper that the commission take on policies that promote customer adoption of flexible demand and distributed energy resources management solutions through a “unified, universally accessible, dynamic economic signal.”

Programs focused on demand flexibility, aka demand response, would aim to solve problems associated with the large-scale integration of intermittent generation to California’s grid, according to the CPUC. 

One such problem is the increased curtailment of wind and...