|
The problem with price discovery is that it's a Homo Economicus sort of solution. A fully rational consumer with full information will react as intended. In the real world, it fails because it requires real-time information distribution and reaction. In the best case, they sent out a message to all their customers: "Your power prices are about to quintuple, disconnect now." Some of those messages will bounce or be delayed. Some will arrive to people who can't read them immediately (in car, asleep, out of reach of device, doing something else). The people who actually do read the message then have to go around trying to adjust things-- hitting overloaded provider-change services, or scurrying around in the breaker box or running around the house pulling cords-- while the clock is ticking. It might work if you eliminate the real-time decision process. I'm envisioning a modernized version of the central breaker box, where you could indicate on a per-circuit level the cut points. The decorative fountain pump cuts off at 8 cents per kWh, the kitchen appliances at 25, and the circuit running the mini-fridge containing your perishable medications will keep chugging at basically any price. This can be modeled and ran through simulations. You'd have to set this up during onboarding, and for optimal value, the house would have to be designed around it, to place outlets on different circuits where it could be useful. But even that needs a need liability fallback if they don't relay the data accurately-- if a message is lost in communication and the house still thinks electricity is 10c/kWh, when it's $10, who's going to eat the difference? Who'd trust the system with that much money at risk? |