Re:Is a smart electricity tariff worth it?
by munk-a on Monday April 15, 2019 @12:49PM
(#19666731)
You don't have to change your behavior. And if you're busy and making good money you may find it's worth it to just eat the tariff cost. In some respects this is the same scenario as toll roads, there is always a free way to get there - how much is your time worth?
There are already a lot of areas that have peak power pricing and, in fact, a lake I went to as a kid[1] actually took advantage of this by (at a scarily low efficiency) pumping water into the lake during off hours and running the turbines during peak usage - it's basically a giant battery (but, again, super inefficient in terms of the energy required to pump the water into the lake, still efficient enough to be profitable though).
There are already a lot of areas that have peak power pricing and, in fact, a lake I went to as a kid[1] actually took advantage of this by (at a scarily low efficiency) pumping water into the lake during off hours and running the turbines during peak usage - it's basically a giant battery (but, again, super inefficient in terms of the energy required to pump the water into the lake, still efficient enough to be profitable though).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Mountain_Dam