[Robotbeat]

It's a good idea if you have a whole-house generator giving you optionality. Even running on diesel, it's only like 50 cents per kWh vs $9/kWh. If you chop off the most expensive part of the curve, wholesale can save you a lot.

It might be a good idea for whole-house generator companies, actually: offer your customers the same thing as Griddy except with the option of automatically switching to your generator if rates get insane. It's actually good for everyone as it reduces grid power consumption.

In fact, I want to see a grid-connected solar/battery/inverter with a dual-fuel (natural gas/propane) generator that feeds into the inverter/charger and then possibly into the grid. That'd be sweet.

A wholesale-only Griddy company could avoid the negative publicity if they only sold to folks with backup power options.

[toast0]

There's a bit of an issue in that you don't really want to run your generator for too many hours. I think mine wants service every 100 hours or every year whichever comes first. Maybe 100 hours is enough for actual backup and substantial peak shaving though; I certainly haven't studied the spot prices in TX, as I wouldn't live there. ;)

If you had local battery storage, and decent forecasting for house demand and spot prices, I think you could have some fun and save some money. Bonus if you can coordinate loads too. Of course, the more people who do that, the flatter the price curve gets, and the less incentive there is to do it.

[shiftpgdn]

I had been kicking that idea around in 2019 after the huge system load ERCOT experienced resulting in record spot prices. My estimate was I could generate around 2 mil/year on a 10 million dollar investment offering battery to grid during peak load hours.

[Robotbeat]

100 hours is quite a long time. If the wholesale electricity price is $9/kWh during these super peaks and you have a 10kW generator, that’s $9000.

[supertrope]

After spending $10K on a generator.