Can the grid be too smart?
From the network that brought you “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” comes a new sitcom titled “My Refrigerator Beats Me at Chess.”
Okay, so I made that up, but companies are feverishly working to make all of our home appliances “smarter” by adding unit-level meters with network capabilities. The idea is that during peak electricity demand, the electric company could shut down your dishwasher and set your towels on “tumble dry only.”
Two questions remain, though: 1. Can we agree on some standards?, and 2. Is it worth doing? Notice, the critical question seems to come second.
An article out this week describes how GE and Whirlpool are chomping at the bit to add smart devices to their home appliance offerings, but they falter at the recognition that there are no standards in place. Modifying the manufacturing process is a costly endeavor, and they’re hesitant to make the investment if it means selling on the bleeding edge of the market.
The Utility Smart Network Access Port (U-SNAP) Alliance purports to solve this exact problem using a protocol-independent serial connection that will mesh with any future technology or standard. Instead of waiting to determine how the language will evolve over time, they simply provide an interpreter that can understand anything.
Which brings us to the second question: What are the benefits of making an appliance smart? The answer to that depends on your perspective.
The utilities benefit by managing their peak demand – the few hours a year when everyone is at home running the A/C full blast while they dry their clothes on “High” and roast a turkey in the oven. Utilities expand their fleet of power plants to meet this maximum capacity, or else they buy power from their neighboring regions at a premium. Both are costly, and the infrastructure build-out becomes even less sensible when one considers how rarely they need those peaking plants. It may be worth a little investment to quell demand, rather than trying to erect another coal-fired peaking plant with all of its requisite permitting and protests.
For the consumer, I think the benefit is less obvious. Perhaps the utility will credit your account each time they down-grade your dishwasher, but it’s unlikely that you’ll make your fortunes on load shedding. And the prospect of seeing your appliance-level energy consumption seems more exciting than it really is. First, the utility may not share it with you, and second, you can get just as much information from a whole house monitor. At least that’s what Energy Circle and Google think.
Okay, back to basking in the glory of my refrigerator…
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