The electrical grid: It’s five p.m. somewhere

When you plug something in, you just want it to work.

You don’t think about the fact that it is 5 p.m. and everyone is turning things on and plugging things in—lights, ovens, stoves, washing machines etc. You don’t need to worry about it because the utility does.

How does the utility make sure there is enough electricity? It separates demand into “baseload”—the normal, flat, day to day electrical demand—and a fluctuating demand, called “peak” demand.

If fluctuating demand sounds scary, keep in mind the electrical grid has always had fluctuating demand and used a fluctuating supply to meet it. In a cool climate, like British Columbia, the largest increase in load comes at the end of the workday, Monday through Friday.

People leave work around 5 p.m. and drive home. Once they get home, they make dinner, wash clothes and run dishwashers. They may also reach for the thermostat, setting the air conditioning to lower temperature during the summer or turning up the heat during the winter.

It’s not just our workday that drives demand. There are also our hobbies.

“TV pickup” is a great example of variable demand. In the U.K., entire populations would watch television shows, then take a break at commercial intermissions to turn on electric kettles to make tea. The largest TV pickup happened July 4, 1990, just after the end of a penalty shootout during the FIFA World Cup, causing a sudden 2,800-megawatt demand (this is the equivalent of 1.12 million kettles).

The National Grid Energy Balancing Team actually monitors television schedules, trying to anticipate the “tea events”.

Utilities could respond to these rises by building more capacity—more hydro dams or more natural gas “peaker” plants that could be called into service on short notice. However, having plants that are idle 90% of the time is very expensive. Luckily, there are other ways of addressing variable demand. For instance, the utility could practice “demand side management,” where the utility signals users that there is a peak and users could reduce their electricity usage.

That can be done in two ways. The simplest way is to charge more for electricity during the peak load, so customers have direct incentives to reduce peak electricity use. Commercial and industrial customers already have pricing that includes a higher charge for periods when they use the most electricity, called a “demand charge.”

This year (2024), B.C. Hydro will offer optional “time-of-use” pricing to residential customers. This new rate will provide an incentive to use electricity during off-peak times, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and a surcharge for electricity used during the peak times, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

How would you shift your habits to benefit from time-of-use pricing? Rather than start your dishwasher after dinner, you could use the four-hour delay feature so it goes on after 11 p.m. You could make sure your electric vehicle (EV) is charging during the off-peak hours, rather than when you plug it in after work. You could also run washing machine and dryer in the morning or at midday on the weekends.

The second way utilities can do demand side management is by direct communication between the utility and smart appliances. For example, during a peak event, you could help by turning down the heat by 4 C. However, the utility can get the same savings from turning down the heat for 100 customers by 0.04 C—a difference nobody would notice.

Fortis actually has a program, its Power Hours Rewards program, for people with smart thermostats and electric vehicles. People who enroll get a text message for each Power Hour event and can opt out by texting back or just by adjusting the temperature manually. Customers are paid to enroll and get seasonal bonus if they support 80% of the Power Hours.

B.C. Hydro has a more extensive program called “Peak Rewards,’’ which supports central air conditioners, electric baseboard heat and electric vehicles. Like the Fortis BC program, Peak Reward customers can opt out of peak events by readjusting their thermostats or unplugging and replugging in their electric vehicle.

If your demand response program is big enough you might completely eliminate the need for a new power plant. By communicating and rearranging electricity use you have a virtual power plant, displacing fossil fuels.

The newest and largest virtual power plant is Renew Home, a merger of Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect. OhmConnect has 226,000 homes on its platform in California, Texas, and New York.

In California and Texas, both hot climates, peak demand comes early in the afternoon when air conditioners are struggling to keep buildings cool. One of the tricks Renew Home can use is “pre-cooling”—turning on air conditioners before the peak so the house is a comfortable temperature when you get home.

Next time you walk into the house and switch on the lights, know you are a “peak” event. You can be the peak or you can be the virtual power plant.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.