REQUIRED READING: The future of appliances
Submitted by advisor on Tue, 11/24/2009 - 6:57pm.
If you buy, sell, build, design, or install appliances you are going to have to understand the details of the Smart Grid and its impact on the end users, our fat, fickle, and festive customers. The chances you will need to know this? 100%, start now.
The Smart Grid does not make your appliances more efficient, but it does shift the energy demand of appliances from peak usage times to times of over-supply and under-demand. Currently that is the night, when electrical demand related to work and leisure end, but the generators used to produce power keep pumping out electricity because it's too damn difficult to stop. That's today. In the future, over-supply may be anytime when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. Unplanned over-supply is not what today's Grid was designed for, and exactly what the "Smart Grid" should solve. A Utility signal starting a million loads of laundry and 1/2 million dishwasher loads solving the utility's over-supply problem, and reducing the consumer's electric bills.
A few of the terms, concepts and technologies that we in appliances will NEED to know are "ZigBee protocol", "Demand Response", "wireless radio chips", "time shifting" and "real time energy management".
See the CNET article "Time short to agree on smart grid standards" which discusses the "standards" getting hammered out to make this all happen.
Time shifting
When I first heard about the smart grid my first response was "oh great, we're giving the power company the tools to turn off our appliances during power shortages." Having PG&E decide whether or not I needed air conditioning on a hot summer day was definitely not okay. Now, it's my understanding that power shifting will be voluntary, giving those who agree a break on energy prices and those who choose to override a bigger electric bill. Currently, if we consume more electricity than is available, we have a brown-out, which of course is not voluntary. Bring on the standards and let's get this done.
Demand Response
Companies like EnerNOC, have for years been contracting with major industrial electric customers to shut down their demand during peak loads (summer heat waves for example) to the benefit of the utility. The customer saves on their annual power costs, while the utility reduces its stand by power capital investment necessary to meet demand during those peaks. The Smart Grid simply gets this option into the hands of the tiny customer who cooks on an electric hotplate.