But there was always this niggling concern that the price could spike to 200x like it did in Texas, without me being able to react. Regulation to cap the peak rate would help allay consumer fears, IMO, while still offering ample profit potential to providers.
You could adjust the limit as you please, with a default of perhaps $100 - but they spare you from million dollar bills, even with uncapped dynamic pricing.
If a reasonable number of these were deployed, the prices would never spike super high, because there would always be someone else willing to turn off their tumble dryer to save 50 bucks.
Consumer demand just isn’t there for this type of product yet
Your water heater will provide water hot enough for a quick shower for a couple days.
but you've hit your daily limit? It's one thing to charge your Tesla later, it's anything
Just like when I lived in Iowa, the car always had blankets in the trunk. When I lived in Arizona, there was always a gallon of drinking water in the trunk (it works in the radiator, too!).
Just common sense.
> Texas experienced temperatures over 50 °F [28 °C] below normal. Records more than a century old were broken
How many people have planned and can execute plans for once in a century events that happen at scale?
I’d consider myself more prepared than most, but if a large chunk of Phoenix lost power in the middle of the summer for more than 24 hours, I think the result would be even worse. There was a study from a few days ago that predicted >12k deaths during a heat wave+power outage. That makes me reconsider not getting whole house batteries ;-)
You can't go into a dynamic environment and only plan for upsides.
1. Price per kWh - $1 last I checked
2. Hours per day at max price - ~9
3. Days per year max price charged - ~10
Even in the worst case, not too scary.