The role of Permanent Load Shift technologies for addressing climate change

Title XIII Section 1301 on the Smart Grid, as passed by the U.S. Congress in 2007, declares that is “the policy of the United States to support the modernization of the Nation´s electricity transmission and distribution system to maintain a reliable and secure electricity infrastructure that can meet future demand growth...”. Demand Response in its various forms is readily understood to fit well within the intended scope. However, to be successful, the universe of Smart Grid approaches must address a host of issues, not yet resolved. For example, the cost of the Smart Grid build-out will require very substantial capital investments, taking perhaps a decade or more; small assets, which in aggregate contribute greatly to peak energy consumption, cannot “afford” the overhead associated with Smart Grid control given their potential small contributions; end-use for smart assets have difficult adoption, comfort, and complexity issues; demand response on some asset classes, especially thermal, struggle with rebound or ripple effect; and security and privacy both are looming issues due to the on-line nature of the systems and data. Permanent Load Shifting, implemented through thermal storage and a novel control strategy will be presented as a means to address these issues in the immediate term, and it will be shown how the magnitude of these technologies in aggregate contribute significantly towards a long term solution.