Edit: why is this comment suddenly grounds for an auto shadowban??????
Your previous comment was the one that first got auto killed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50216326
I don't know why it was. Reach out to the mods (contact link at the bottom of the page), asking the question here won't get you an answer.
It's a sad, but true, indictment about how scaled humanity works.
I have heard of efforts to link thermostats etc. with this virtual power plant idea so that when there is an energy demand one's home appliances stop working so hard and use less energy. This of course could lead to hot/cold houses for people, so there must always be the option to manually override if the discomfort is a problem. So many of these efforts come from e.g. California... other places in the world have wider weather extremes to worry about!
Basically, you get solar and battery, and google gets the excess power.
Origin 5 months ago Google and Voltus sign agreement for smart energy capacity (3 points) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48371484
benoau•1h ago
Somewhere amongst this was a great opportunity for reducing consumption of electricity from dirty sources, mass-optimizing millions of thermostats, car and electric bikes/etc charging, refrigerators, computer power settings etc to reduce emissions... but now it sounds like it should be illegal.
superb_dev•49m ago
aDyslecticCrow•43m ago
It's pretty good! The need came from the high variability of wind power. Less dystopian than ... data centers... urgh.
It's of course optional. If you optimise well you can beat the monthly or daily tables and save quite a bit. If you don't care; you pay whatever the grid operator estimates.
stvltvs•25m ago