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CHARLOTTE -- Tucked in the depths of Duke Energy's latest North Carolina rate request is a money-saving deal -- a 20 percent discount on electricity -- that few customers know about and fewer take. It's also a vision of the future.

The RT or time-of-use rate rewards residential consumers whose heaviest energy use is when overall demand falls, such as at night, and electricity is cheapest to generate. The risk is that customers who stray, using power at peak times such as hot summer afternoons, are punished by higher rates.

Duke has offered the rate for more than 30 years, but fewer than 2,000 of its 1.4 million North Carolina customers are signed on.

Time-of-use rates date to the blooming energy-consciousness of the 1970s. But they and similar forms of pricing are poised for rebirth through digital technology.

The problem, for now, is that most time-of-use customers have to sacrifice convenience and comfort -- such as higher air conditioner settings in summer -- to save money. Digital "smart" technology promises to change that by offering more information, choices and control over their energy use.

"Technology is there to do that," said Bernard Neenan, an economist at the Electric Power Research Institute in Knoxville, Tenn. "You can set up a plan for the day and signal your devices to follow. If company is coming, you can stop the dishwasher and cool the place."

Emerging smart technology includes digital meters that record when, not just how much, electricity is used.

Consumers armed with energy management systems and sensor-equipped appliances could synchronize their heaviest electricity use with the cheapest rates.

Duke began testing home energy-management systems in southeast Charlotte in 2009. By 2010, customers who took part had seen an average 8 percent drop in their bills.

As technology advances, Neenan said utilities and regulators are "just on the cusp" of adopting new ways to price electricity.

The N.C. Utilities Commission's Public Staff, which advocates for consumers, is pushing Duke to explore energy-saving rates that would appeal to more residential customers. A wider range of time-of-use and real-time pricing is already available to commercial and industrial customers.

"During the (November) rate hearing, there was a lot of emotional testimony," said Jack Floyd, a Public Staff rate-design engineer. "They were essentially asking for ways to save money. That really is the fundamental driver here."

As part of a settlement agreement with the Public Staff on the 7.2 percent rate hike it seeks, Duke agreed to explore new rate options.

Among the possibilities, Duke says, are high "critical peak" prices for the very highest-demand hours of the year, reflecting the high cost of making electricity at those times.

Pricing tiers would be set for less-critical times. Such rate structures have attracted up to a third of the customers in Arizona, Neenan said.

Customers might also get direct rebates for using less power at peak times.

"Technology is the foundational piece," said Dennis Garman, a Duke official who works in home efficiency programs. "It's the information that flows through the technology that makes the difference."

Duke recently tested several pricing plans in Ohio that could see broader use.

The homes of about 500 participating customers were equipped with digital meters to track hour-by-hour energy use. Customers saw energy savings of as little as $20 to more than $100 over the one-year pilot program.

One test rewarded customers with rebates if they dropped their energy use during 10 peak-demand times of the year. Another offered time-of-use rates with feedback to customers on how they performed.

A third paired time-of-use rates with home energy-management systems, which let customers track and fine-tune their electricity use.

For now, time-of-use rates require more changes in daily habit than most customers are willing to make, said Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes.

Nearly 29,000 Progress customers in the Carolinas are on time-of-use rates.

"We are certainly aware of and looking to leverage the technology where it makes sense," Hughes said. "Certainly, the future includes more flexibility, more rate schedules and rates that are variable in some sense."