Alphabet's Nest Wants to Build a 'Citizen-Fueled' Power Plant (bloomberg.com)

Mark Chediak, reporting for Bloomberg:Alphabet Inc's Nest Labs is looking to enlist enough customers in California to free up as much power as a small natural gas-fired plant produces, helping alleviate potential energy shortages in the region following a massive gas leak that has restricted supplies. Nest, which supplies digital, wireless thermostats, is partnering with Edison International's Southern California Edison utility to get households enrolled in a state-established energy conservation program. The company wants to attract 50,000 customers through next summer that could shrink their total demand by as much as 50 megawatts when needed, Ben Bixby, Nest's director of energy businesses at Nest, said by phone. "We are building a citizen-fueled clean power plant," he said.

Comments

Slashdot = Fair & Balanced. . .

[Idou]

Or. . . maybe they want to do things like turn on A/Cs earlier in the day to cool off houses while the solar power generation for the day is still high, instead of waiting for people to get home later in the day and manually turn on their A/Cs (after solar power generation has gone down, so you have to use natural gas)?

Coming home to a cooled house is actually a plus for both the consumer and the grid, but don't let that get in the way of your FOX like "'bama's gonna take our guns!" like interpretation. . .