Romain Dillet in TechCrunch on the Nest thermostat:
The company has negotiated deals with multiple energy partners in the U.S. Some utility partners are willing to spend $30 to $50 per year and per thermostat to be able to turn the air conditioner up when it’s a hot day. This way, the utility can levels load on the grid. Partners don’t have direct access to the thermostats, they just sign a deal with Nest, and then Nest has access to the thermostats.
I…what?
I’ve never read a more confusing piece of journalism, and it reminds me of why I never read TechCrunch anymore.
The article makes it sound like utility companies are paying a thermostat manufacturer for the ability to arbitrarily increase electricity usage on hot days when usage is already high to “level load”? (And that typo makes the sentence ungrammatical.)
But thanks to a post on hacker news, I’m led to believe they’re talking about this: Rush Hour Rewards.
Fascinating stuff.