Off-Peak Electric Heat Blog

The New York Times had an article last week by Matthew L. Wald commenting on a FERC ruling that states that Bonneville Power Authority (BPA) must re-write its rules to cope with events that cause an excess of renewable energy. Last spring and summer BPA dealt with large river flows and fast ramping wind events. BPA’s solution to these events was to curtail the wind.  This made the wind developers not happy.  At the end of Mr. Wald’s article he refers to a “radical program that installs equipment in consumer’s homes”.  Much of the equipment in this radical program is Steffes Grid-interactive Electric Thermal Storage (GETS). 

The Steffes GETS systems are able to receive signals to ramp up or down quickly to productively use this “excess” of green energy productively. As more renewable generation from wind and solar sources comes on line, the need to have fast acting resources will continue to grow. These types of articles will continue to pop up as grid operators are faced with the challenges of balancing variable demand and variable generation.  As such we will continue to promote the Steffes GETS space and water heating as a low cost solution.