Demand Response

A large share of the special green issue of the NYTimes Magazine was closely tied to economics.  I find this encouraging.  Here is one interesting bit:

…demand response has become one of the most powerful
green techniques for protecting the nation’s overtaxed power grids. When
a blackout looms, utilities call a small coterie of demand-response firms. These
firms prearrange for major users of electricity – factories, shopping
malls, skyscrapers – to shut down all nonessential electricity in exchange
for payments, often totaling tens of thousands of dollars each year. It’s
expensive, but far less so than a blackout that cascades across the country….ConsumerPowerline controls 300 huge buildings in
New York alone, where hastily brokered turnoffs by Macy’s
and major hotels prevented the spread of a 2006 blackout in Queens
– a blackout that lasted for more than a week – into Manhattan.

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