Sean Dague would like to use his refrigerator to lower your energy bills.
A few years ago, after buying a fridge, the Dutchess County resident did something few people do: He read the manual. (He’s a software engineer at IBM, so he does that.) In it, he learned that, when the grid was under strain, the local utility could send a signal telling it to temporarily use less power. He found similar language in the manual for his hot-water heater.
This feature could save Dague money and make it less likely that utilities would need to rely on fossil-fuel-reliant “peaker” plants, such as Danskammer, north of Newburgh. If every “smart” appliance were connected this way, it could save money for everyone and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
Alas, there was a major obstacle. Central Hudson doesn’t participate.
“When you talk about what it costs to get electricity to people, you also have to talk about demand flexibility,” says Dague, who lives in LaGrange. “We have the technology to do it.”
I was recently interviews by the Highlands Current about the fight over NY's climate law, and got a chance to really talk about Virtual Power Plants, and how they change the equation for what a fully clean energy system could look like.
Nearly everyone that's looking at energy systems, and the transition, focuses on the power supply problem. That leads to a bunch of really bad assumptions about the kinds of infrastructure you nee to keep around that you're only going to use 11 hours a year. Complex machines that are mostly off... don't turn on reliably. We can do so much better with batteries and demand flexibility to make a fully clean system. It's something I think about a lot, and should be writing more about.
Read the whole article, it's great. I loved talking with Brian, and I think his article really sees me and the lens I've brought to this, for which I'll forever be grateful.