The Trouble With Air-Conditioners | The Energy Collective

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Con Edison has been promoting green initiatives for some time now, but certain problems impede their progress: dense urban environments are ill-suited to the promise of smart meter technologies, consumer behaviors are hard to change, and there are those pesky window air conditioners.

Yes, window air conditioners.

Read my post in The Energy Collective

Tendril, UISOL, PJM Partnership Could Benefit Residential Consumers

Managing residential electricity demand and controlling load balances is an increasing problem for PJM Interconnection, North America's largest power grid, especially during extreme weather events and peak demand times.

Now Tendril, an energy platform company we've been tracking here at The Green Skeptic, is partnering with Utility Integration Solutions, Inc. (UISOL), a provider of demand response management and automation systems, on what they call a "Price Response Demand" demo project for PJM.

"This real-world demonstration will show the feasibility and ease with which residential customers can reduce their energy consumption in response to wholesale price signals that reflect grid conditions," according to Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck. "It will also enable utilities to aggregate Demand Response in consumers' homes for better load control, increased efficiency and additional savings."

The project combines Tendril's Connect platform with UISOL’s Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR) price server to allow PJM to test a near real-time program for price response and better manage electricity demand.

If it works, residential consumers will be able to have a better handle on the cost of energy used in their homes and utilities will be able to better manage load balances that can lead to brown-outs or even black-outs during peak usage events.

This latest announcement comes on the heals of Tendril's partnerships with ThinkEco, creators of the "modlet" plug-load management device, and Whirlpool on smart home appliances.

The company also launched Tendril Energize, which they call "the first ever application suite based on proven behavioral science techniques" to provide "persistent consumer engagement in home energy performance."

Tendril and UISOL are demonstrating their PJM project at DistribuTECH 2011 this week in San Diego.

Related articles

• ThinkEco and Tendril Collaborate to Smarten the Smart Grid (prnewswire.com)
• Tendril's IDEO-Designed Home-Energy Monitoring Device Fails, Utilitarianism Wins (fastcompany.com)
• Whirlpool, Tendril to Collaborate on Smart Appliances (matternetwork.com)
• Are Consumers Ready For Home Energy Management in 2011? (gigaom.com)
• Tendril app tries to Energize consumer efficiency (news.cnet.com)

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 12/10/10

Watercolor of John Lennon by SEA

First up, an interesting debate on whether Moore's Law makes sense in cleantech. Here's Convergence of Prevailing Laws — Haitz + Moore — Enables Intelligent Lighting by Brian Chemel, which points to a post from earlier in the year by Martin LaMonica of CNET: Can green tech operate under Moore's Law?

Have a look at this promotional video of Solyndra's highly automated solar plant. Now that's high-tech manufacturing!

Carbon War Room Rates Efficiency of 60,000 Ships at New Data Hub

An excellent profile of Teddy Roosevelt IV by one of our favorite business writers (and self-professed handmaiden to capitalism, Heidi Moore: Backing a Wind Farm, a Quiet Voice With a Big Stick $$

GigaOm pubbed its Cleantech Blog’s Top 5 Investors (+ 5 Risky Ones)

And in news about Green Skeptic held companies:

The EnerNOC Shopping Spree Continues With Global Energy Partners $ENOC

And Ormat appointed John Hancock for DOE loan guarantee ~US$300m $ORA

Finally, this week marked the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon, who would have been 70 on October 9th.  Here's a poem I wrote for the occasion: "John Lennon at 70."
Have a great weekend everyone!


(Disclosure: I hold long positions in ENOC and ORA. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)

Green Skeptic Friday LinkFest - 11/26/10

A short week with the holiday in the US, so a little spare on the links today:

EnerNoc says it is well-Positioned to grow Demand Response market in PJM territory: $ENOC

Jim DiPeso of Republicans for Environmental Protection, says "Don't let Congress handcuff EPA," in FrumForum.

Stephen King (no, not that one, the one at HSBC)asks "Who needs who? America and China must avoid making past mistakes again," in The Independent.

Kiran Stacey writes in Financial Times that greens are waking up to China’s coal boom: China Coal

And speaking of China, The Economist, featured an obituary of the great Liang Congjie, China's first environmentalist, who died on Oct 25: China green.

Martin Lamonica of CNET suggests that energy technology entrepreneurs need to think more like chess players and look to China and elsewhere, where the regulatory environment is simpler and governments are more welcoming: Look Overseas, Young Startup.

T-T-That's all folks, I now return you back to your leftover turkey already in progress.


(Disclosure: I hold a long position in ENOC. This post is for informational purposes only and is neither intended to be investment advice nor an offer, or the solicitation of any offer, to buy or sell any securities.)