If load shifting is going to have a significant impact, we’ll need some changes in policy as well as some technological advances. Utility companies will have to update the price of electricity throughout the day to account for shifts in supply and demand, for instance, and your water heater and electric car will have to be smart enough to take advantage of this price information and respond accordingly.
It's interesting that in an American context this is listed as something that'll need to happen. In my (Norwegian) context this is stuff that happened on the order of a decade ago.
