“DR gives the utility company the ability to “respond” to periods of high demand by turning off your big electrical-consuming appliances, such as your air conditioner. Not forever, but maybe 10 minutes out of the hour, when no matter what you do, the A/C will not run.”
As bad as it sounds now, wait until the REAL enabling legislation gets implemented. For example, I can wire around any attempt by a utility to remotely cut off my existing air conditioner. I know where every wire is, and I know what every wire does. However, with the Smart Meters, they will still be able to tell that my house is running the AC, just by my real-time power usage. So my AC stays on even though the utility commanded it off. Something has to give - and what has to give is that the utility will have to get laws passed CRIMINALIZING my workarounds (i.e., tampering). That’s where things start to get really ugly.