[mbishop]

For those of you skeptical that software can address this problem.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_power_plant

Adding storage to the grid is one solution, but adding software that can better influence the demand various customers put on the grid is also surprisingly effective.

[whatshisface]

>software that can better influence the demand various customers put on the grid is also surprisingly effective.

Every time the smart grid comes up, I imagine the power company turning off my air conditioning because the ability to turn off my air conditioning made them feel safe to under-provision.

[ncallaway]

What if you could set parameters under which the power company could turn off your air conditioning, and you got paid as a result?

Such as:

* You may turn off my air-conditioning for $2.00/hour as long as my room's temperature is below 75 Fahrenheit.

* You may turn off my air-conditioning for $10.00/hour as long as my room's temperature is below 80 Fahrenheit.

* You may turn off my air conditioning for a maximum of 1-hour per day for $60.00/hour, as long as my room's temperature is below 85 Fahrenheit

* You may, at no point, turn off my air-conditioning between the hours of 10pm-6am.

[1123581321]

Anecdotally, we are paid $10/mo for the utility to have the option to disable our A/C for up to a couple hours a day. They do not pay us for the time they actually disable A/C, but I don’t it hasn’t actually happened yet, so we are “winning” that bet. I think that customers would bid this option lower than $10, given the option, but agree others wouldn’t touch it. I hope that the price mitigated the real risk of supply planning skew mentioned by the GP.

[mmt]

I would only do it if either I actually controlled the software that did the turning off or there were a third-party that could be trusted to monitor and provided an escrow account with a huge financial penalty payable to me if the utility ever broke the rules.

I have absolutely no reason to trust them unless their incentives align with mine, and, here, they do not.

Even in that case, I would only agree to the 75F limit, because, for the other ones, it would take way too much time (and possibly too much energy, as well) to get back down. Air conditioning isn't instantaneous, and one can't just turn it on when one needs it, if there's more than a trivial temperature (or humidity[1]) drop.

[1] For some areas of the country, that's another, bigger problem with allowing an outsider to turn off the AC: go too long without and the humidity goes up too high. Now you have to buy a thermostat with a humidistat, just in case, even if you didn't need one before.

[emiliobumachar]

That's sure one way to do it. Another one is to have strict on- device limitations for how much control the power company does have. E.g. maximum delay of one minute for the air conditioning, one hour for the ice maker. A little flexibility goes a long way in load management.

[mbishop]

It works where the power company might just raise your air conditioning thermostat for a few hours.

Your Nest can already do this:

  https://nest.com/support/article/What-is-Rush-Hour-Rewards

[LeifCarrotson]

Your residential AC is a long, long way down the smart grid priority chain.

The steel foundry down the road is a lot easier to convince - their profits are directly tied to the cost of energy, and it is relatively easy for them to scale energy use up or down.