Source: Forbes.com
“With a flood of renewable-energy supplies coming online, it’s time for the electricity grid to get smart.
In a yearlong trial run that ended in the spring, 200 or so homes on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula engaged in a daily bidding war for electricity. It was a sort of robotic Ebay auction in which the thermostat in one house, say, bid against the clothes dryer in another for scarce electrons. The loser would turn off and wait for prices to drop before jumping back onto the grid.”