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A modern one one of the most satisfying certainties of life is dialing on an AC phone and sitting behind it to keep the room magically selected. But last week, Texas smart thermostat owners reported that the magic was gone: their devices were set to 4 degrees above the temperature the homeowner wanted, as if they were being scolded for trying to get it. also comfortable in a heat wave. A lot anger he continued.
The toasted Texans entered a precarious dance of electricity supply and demand. When they purchased the smart thermostats, they chose a voluntary program called Smart Savers Texas from a software company offered by EnergyHub, including a software company provided by CenterPoint Energy. In times of high demand, like a constant heat wave, they agreed to accept this 4-degree blow. In this “temperature adjustment event”, the user can manually overwrite the increase, according to EnergyHub, but will lose the raffle ticket for up to $ 5,000 year electricity bills. Anyone who wants to leave this program to meet the demand can register.
Basically, you endure a warmer room to make sure your AC doesn’t fail in the network, in which case you and everyone else should endure much warmer rooms. EnergyHub is one of several companies conducting demand response programs across the country and their program is device-agnostic, so there won’t be any single-brand thermostat users who will notice the growth. “The real benefit of these programs is very little inconvenience (no inconvenience) to ensure that all of these extreme weather events have air conditioning and lighting, which I think is becoming more and more prevalent,” says Erika Diamond. Vice President of EnergyHub Customer Solutions.
A CenterPoint Energy representative sent a message to WIRED explaining the partnership: “When CenterPoint Energy initiates a reduction event based on high temperatures or high demand, EnergyHub initiates the energy reduction through customers who have registered in its program.”
According to the email, the utility conducts a “test reduction” every year and on June 16 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. As Texas-sized anger developed, you’d think it was all a surprise. But EnergyHub has been running the program for eight years, with other similar programs with 50 other public services across the country, with about 500,000 homes enrolled. Texas begins two or eight temperature adjustments in the summer in Texas, the state average. Enrollment incentives may vary depending on availability (e.g., energy bill allowances), but the goal is the same: to hire customers to help the network not help itself.
In other words, when these programs decrease supply, they reduce demand. “The size of the grid is to keep supply and demand in immediate balance, because storing electricity is very expensive,” says David Victor, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego. final main report In US networks. The electricity generated must be used immediately. “If storage is ubiquitous and cheap, that can completely transform the way networks actually work. But right now, to move electrons across the network and make networks stable, you have to match supply and demand,” he continues.
Utilities are fully aware of the voltage that the heat wave will put on the grid, along with all these AC units. They can also predict how the order will change during the day, for example, when people return home from work around 5pm or 6pm and turn on their system. It also occurs when supply is tightened; services can generate so much energy at a given time. “In these times, the network is very sensitive; one or two percent of the total demand can have a big impact,” says Victor. “That’s why there’s so much need to find strategies to reduce demand a little bit or shift it to another part of the day. That would have a big impact on total electricity demand.”
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