Why millions of Americans give up control of their thermostats

HOUSTON — Last September, in the final days of what was then the hottest summer in human history, scorching temperatures threatened to knock out the Texas power grid.

As air conditioners around the state strained to keep homes and businesses cool in 100-plus-degree heat, the state’s grid operator declared an energy emergency, asking all Texans to save electricity between 6 and 9 p.m.

Ada Garcia, a Houston homeowner, didn’t have to touch her thermostat to pitch in. Her utility company remotely shut off her air conditioner nine times that day as part of a power-saving strategy that is already propping up grids around the country as they deal with booming demand and a growing share of unpredictable wind and solar power.

Garcia, who was working in her home office, had no idea that Texas was teetering on the edge of an energy crisis that evening or that Octopus Energy, her power company, was waging a battle in her living room to save the grid. But these small adjustments to her thermostat saved about 10 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to wash about 20 loads of laundry.

“I never really notice when they change the thermostat,” said Garcia, who signed up for the energy-saving program in exchange for a discount on her monthly power bill.

Around the state of Texas, Octopus and other power companies raised thermostats, paused electric car chargers and tapped into home batteries in thousands more of their customers’ homes. They also paid stores, data centers and office towers to shut off lights and air conditioners and slow down their computers.

All told, Texas utilities made 2.6 gigawatts of electricity demand disappear in the critical moments when the grid was in crisis — the equivalent of a large nuclear power plant.

That’s why programs like this one are called “virtual power plants.”

Experts say they will be crucial for helping the United States clean up the electric grid without facing blackouts — and without waiting years for new power plants and transmission lines to go through permitting and construction.

“They can be deployed very quickly using [devices] that are already in people’s garages or on people’s rooftops or in people’s basements,” said Mark Dyson, a managing director in the electricity program at the clean energy think tank RMI.

Power grids across the country are straining to keep up with demand as new data centers and factories sprout up and more drivers plug in electric cars. Meanwhile, supply is becoming less predictable as power companies replace polluting fossil fuel plants with wind turbines and solar panels that only make electricity when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining.

Tripling the current capacity of virtual power plants by 2030 would help the U.S. grid meet rising electricity demand in a faster, cheaper, and cleaner way than just building new power plants, according to a recent report from the Energy Department. But for that to happen, millions more people would have to give companies power to fiddle with their thermostats and appliances.

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