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Photo: Brian Finke
When Thomas Edison started his electricity company 129 years ago, it served 59 people in a tiny section of Manhattan. Nowadays, Consolidated Edison makes juice for some 3 million residents of the New York metro area. That’s a lot of people using a lot of watts, and sometimes the utility has to slow the flow. When a heat wave settles in, and the threat of an overloaded power grid looms, Con Ed has the authority to remotely control the central air-conditioning units of more than 20,000 customers. The company doesn’t take this lightly—in fact, it follows bureaucratic and technological procedures worthy of NORAD.
1. RECRUIT
Con Ed has to persuade New Yorkers to allow their central air to be switched off at the utility’s discretion. There are incentives: a $25 check ($50 for small businesses), a free smart thermostat you can program by phone, and the promise of lower bills. So far, 23,600 customers have signed up.
2. MONITOR
The utility studies weather models 24/7 at its Manhattan HQ. Offices in the boroughs monitor the status of underground power equipment. Certain events—say, an overloaded transformer—trigger alert codes, turning the affected part of a network map yellow, orange, or red.
3. ESCALATE
An alert results in heightened awareness levels. But when a massive lingering heat wave threatens the entire network, Con Ed sets up what it calls “a situation room on steroids” to coordinate emergency measures. (There’s no set location; the utility claims it can be established “virtually anywhere.”)
4. MAKE THE CALL
During power emergencies, individual commanders run the show in 12-hour shifts. If one of them makes the call to activate direct load control, Con Ed directs its “implementation contractor” to communicate with the tens of thousands of smart thermostats via radio signal.
5. SHUT IT DOWN
The AC compressors in a targeted area—say, a neighborhood in Queens—are cycled (30 minutes on, 30 minutes off), easing up to 33 megawatts off the system. Sure, it’s a fraction of the 13,000 MW used on a sizzling summer day, but it can be enough to prevent overloads and blackouts.
Illustrations: Brown Bird Design
Authors:
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