Patent ID: 8897632

Claim:
A method of managing electrical power storage comprising: remotely controlling operation of one of at least two water heating units included in a single water heater, separately from one another, at a customer location in response to a determination that an imbalance exists in a distribution of electricity to a power grid coupled to the single water heater, wherein the imbalance comprises a greater supply of electricity to the power grid than a demand for electricity on the power grid, the method of further comprising: determining, using a system that is remote from the single water heater, that the single water heater is available for activation; and providing an indication from the remote system to the customer location to operate the single water heater in a utility controlled mode of operation within less than about one minute of determining existence of the imbalance; wherein the imbalance further comprises a phase imbalance between voltages distributed to first and second power grid regions wherein the single water heater is included in the first power grid region, the method further comprising: determining, using the system that is remote from the single water heater, that the single water heater is available for activation based on a phase of a voltage signal distributed to the single water heater compared to the phase imbalance.