“Now suppose that a smart, network connected air-conditioner is able to receive day-ahead, hourly electricity prices. For this example, assume that tomorrow’s mid-morning prices are low due to forecasted peak wind generation in the mid-morning hours. The customer has previously set the building’s smart thermostats to an acceptable temperature range and selected the option which minimizes electricity costs within this range. The smart thermostats have already “learned” through experience how to optimize the building’s inherent thermal storage to take advantage of the low mid-morning prices to pre-cool the building and then reduce air-conditioning load during the afternoon when prices are high. The actions all happen automatically and by aggregating air conditioners across the system, the mismatch between peak wind generation and peak demand is eliminated.”
Now suppose we build an air conditioner, and suppose that the purpose of the air conditioner is to cool the building. Now we shut the air conditioner off when we can’t get enough electricity. And now we can’t cool the building! But, most importantly, we can generate electricity whenever we want, not give a thought to the customer, and when they inconveniently choose to not roll back the entire 20th Century of technological development by letting their equipment sit unused, we can just impose a rolling brownout and call the customer selfish and a menace to society.
Ahh… It’s great to run a business that has such a dedicated, fierce customer base.
Filed under Alternatives, Anti-Nuclear Quote of the Day, Economics, Energy
Posted on June 29, 2006 by Stewart Peterson |
