I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about smart grid technology.

The forces of supply and demand have long governed prices in a free enterprise system. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the electricity market.

Consumers pay the same rate per kilowatt during the day, when demand is high, as they are in the middle of the night, when demand is low.

This disguises the true costs of electricity and prevents consumers from adjusting their demand to the actual cost of electricity.

The Smart Grid technology that we will learn more about today has the capacity to bring the power of the market to electric consumers at the retail level by providing them with real-time prices. This will allow them to make rational decisions about demanding electricity and

If it costs more to wash a load of towels during the day than it does in the evening, I may wait until 8pm to do my laundry.

If a whole lot of other people make that same decision, we may be able to move enough electricity load to off-peak times to avoid building a new power plant or substation.

That's real energy savings.

Mr. Chairman, conservation and efficiency must play an important role in our strategy to wean ourselves from our dependence on foreign energy, so I thank you for holding this hearing today.