As summer temperatures rise, and electricity usage overwhelms the grid, utility companies need to quickly and inexpensively implement energy curtailment solutions to avoid purchasing energy on the spot market. These curtailments involve raising customers' thermostats by a few degrees in summer when the state's grid begins to overload as a means to avoid blackouts, brownouts and higher electricity bills. Scheduled or instant curtailment instructions can be sent to a single home, a neighborhood or an entire region. DeviceGate initiates a call and establishes communication with emWare s Enterprise Messaging Gateway during non-peak hours. The EMG then transmits the thermostat settings to the utility company's database.
Curtailments are just as simple.
Using a utility management application, such as one provided by Silicon Energy, the utility company sends a curtailment message via the Internet to emWare's Enterprise Gateway Messaging service. The curtailment message is then broadcast to DeviceGate using SkyTel's one-way paging capabilities. The Internet-enabled, programmable thermostat communicates wirelessly with DeviceGate to retrieve the thermostat setback instructions along with the scheduled duration. Home and business owners have the option to override the curtailment at any time by simply pressing a button on the thermostat. In addition, they can log on to the utility's Web site to view usage status and make remote adjustments to their thermostat settings.