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Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Eh... all they can do is temporarily shut it off if the power plant is threatening to overload. When it overloads, someone's losing their power anyway. It's like rolling blackouts, but much more polite. 
They gave us a free high-tech programmable thermostat out of the deal, and they have a contract that says they can't turn it off for more than ten minutes at a time, and only ever between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00 in the evening. Most of the time we're not home then anyway. And they send us a report at the end of the year that notifies us of exactly when they had to shut it off, and so far it's only been once each year. |
Cool. I never heard of such a thing. It sounds very intelligent and seems to be implemented very well.
Of course, once the thermostat is installed, there is always the chance that it will turn in to a slippery slope. Sure, you have a strict contract now, but I can envision a less scrupulous city/utility deciding to hold off on building that new power plant for another decade because they can always increase the rolling "blackouts" they do on all the thermostats around town. Eventually the AC might only be on for a few hours total each day. Path of least resistance, and all.