EnerNOC returns 260% from lowering lights in 2009’s power grid - Bloomberg.com

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Donn Dresselhuys used to shake his head in disbelief every time he saw a utility’s meter reader trudge from house to house to record how much electricity people had used. The ritual demonstrated how the power industry had shunned innovation and changed little since the 1950s.

Dresselhuys, a retired executive who had spent 30 years running a water purification company in Milwaukee, set out in 1995 to build a device that would enable meters to transmit data to utilities every hour, sending signals through the air much like mobile phones do. His tiny company soon confronted the realities of changing an industry in which old habits die hard...