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Arizona Trialing System That Lets Utility System Control Home A/Cs
AzTechGuy writes "Arizona Public Service Co., Arizona's largest power company, is implementing a test program that would put customers' thermostats under their control to help balance power needs during critical peak usage times. APS will be able to remote control the customers' thermostats to control power draw from their A/C when there is a critical power transmission issue on the grid. Customers will be able to override these settings if they desire."
And the solution is terribly simple, pay more for your elec so that more power facilities can be built. But that is not an option either because all the profits go to shareholder, not into investments for the future.
No, the solution is to kill all the environmentalists that have made it impossible to build more power facilities. There hasn't been a major power plant built in the US since the 1970s and there isn't likely to be one built anytime soon, either.
Similarly, because just about everyone knows that electricity is dangerous and power lines cause cancer, impotentence, autism and warts nobody wants a nice new "smart grid" transmission line anywhere near their house, school or office. So we aren't going to be getting many of those, either.
I do not believe there is any chance of increasing electric generating capacity in the US today. So, what we are going to see is utilities turning more and more to regulation and control to ensure that what they have will work for a growing population. Of course, it can't possibly work for much longer - we have already seen the signs of maxing out the capacity. But they have no choice really, as there are no new facilities going to be built.