Seems like a great IoT opportunity. Smart-appliances that are able to detect prices on a public energy marketplace, or receive a signal from energy companies, so that they can turn on their high-energy processes when the grid needs some evening out.

When I was in California in the 00-09 timeframe I recall the facilities manager had an ambient orb at their desk that was provided by PG&E ( http://www.ambientdevices.com/technology/utility-deployment ). It would change color based on the grid demand hinting to people who had co-generation ability to turn on power if its needed and would start flashing if a rolling blackout was going to occur in the near future. The ambient orb (IIRC) utilizes the pager network - so the information is there if you can subscribe to it.

Ambient also has http://www.ambientdevices.com/about/energy-devices which again has the power information (including cost/kWh) that one could tap into... if the local power company supplies the information.

Yep, the industry term for this stuff is "Demand Response", and there's already companies doing this.

If you're in California, there's a company called ohmconnect.com. You can hook up your Nest thermostat and smart plugs connected to your lights, fridge, etc. They let you know once or twice a week of peak pricing hours... if you can reduce your consumption during those hours, they credit you. They use your smart meter to verify participation.

Yes, but the security really needs to be brought up to par. A botnet of those could synchronize the activation and deactivation of the high-energy processes to wreck the grid for ransom, terrorism, or war.

(I suppose that's way too serious to be done for the lulz, but one never knows)

True. Worst case, notify me of energy price opportunities and then I can decide which of my processes to trigger.

Yeah, I hear ya. But at least it mitigates risk.

This is the first real potential application I've ever seen for connected appliances.

Same. I've generally been pretty bearish on IoT appliances since the usual features seem to be a) contrived, b) net inconveniences, and/or c) primarily of benefit to commercial entities rather than consumers (i.e. buy milk reminders). This, on the other hand, is something that's difficult to do without automation and is pretty beneficial to everyone involved--the more I think of it, the more I like it. Really hope as negative energy costs become more of a "problem" we see manufacturers start drifting towards this use case.

But can't we adobt some habits now? That is, for example, is electricity is cheaper in the evening only do wash after 7pm.

I understand that's not as easy as automatic. But manual also forces us to embrace "the din of awareness" such that green-thinking is who we are, and not something we "outsource" so we have more time and energy to consume.

I think you may be conflating two ideas. You seem to be talking about green thinking, where most of the thread is talking about using automation to even out the grid when energy consumption is below minimum production levels, which may very well happen during the day and at unpredictable times in a solar-heavy grid. Sure, we can adopt green habits now (especially since negative prices are still a rare problem), but it doesn't actually address the discussion at hand.

That’s how Nest thermostats generate revenue for Google (utility pays Google for the ability to shed AC loads across their customer base during peak demand [“rush hour” voluntary program]).

Tesla’s backend also supports this functionality (although its only deployed in a few geographic areas).