What does it mean for the grid to be stressed?
The grid can be stressed for many reasons. Most commonly, during the summer, the grid is stressed during hot and humid afternoons when electricity consumption is very high for air conditioning.
What happens when the grid is stressed and will I notice it?
PWR supports the grid when it is stressed by lowering overall consumption among participating devices and encouraging discharge to the grid by participating batteries. What this means for you depends on your responsiveness choice. Here are some examples of how devices will respond to grid stress during a heat wave and how you may experience this response:
Heat pump or air conditioner
If you choose high responsiveness, during a few hours in the afternoons of a heat wave, your heat pump thermostat may increase the set point temperature by 3 to 5 degrees so that it draws less power when the grid is stressed. This increase in set point likely means that the interior temperature of your building will rise. If you choose low responsiveness, your heat pump thermostat may only increase 1 or 2 degrees, if it adjusts at all. You will earn incentives during these adjustments. Note that you can always change your responsiveness choice or pause participation and restore your preferred thermostat set point during an event.
Home Storage Battery
If you choose high responsiveness, during a few hours in the afternoons of a heat wave, your battery will discharge, maybe down to 20%. If you choose low responsiveness, your battery will discharge down to 80%, if at all. Once the grid stress has passed, the batteries will fully charge. You are unlikely to notice this discharge, except in the very unlikley event that there is a grid outage immediately after the grid stress event. (Most grid outages in Memphis occur during storms, not heat waves). You will earn incentives for this discharge. You can also always pause participation and start re-charging the battery during an event if you are worried about an impending storm or other grid outage.
Can I pause participation when the grid is stressed?
Yes. At any time you can use the PWR App to pause participation. You can pause participation for up to 72 hrs at a time. You can pause an unlimited number of times. Note that while a device's participation is paused, you will not earn any performance incentives for that device.
Will I be notified when the grid is stressed?
Yes. The PWR App gives you real time insight into grid conditions, including when the grid is stressed and PWR is asking devices to respond. For some events, you may also receive an e-mail notification.
How often should I expect grid stress events to occur?
In the summer, most events will correspond with hot and humid afternoons. This typically happens 10 to 20 times per summer. In addition, PWR will perform a series of scenario tests that will simulate grid stress events. We expect that these scenario tests will occur about 10 times per year, depending on whether the 2026 and 2027 summers are hotter or cooler than normal.
Will appliances other than my enrolled responsive energy devices be affected when the grid is stressed?
No, PWR only communicates with enrolled devices. Other appliances will behave as they normally do.
What happens if my internet connection goes down?
If your internet connection is disrupted, your thermostat will continue to operate but it will not communicate with PWR's technology. Once the internet connection is restored, your responsive energy devices will automatically reconnect to PWR.
Can I monitor my energy use?
Yes, one of the key features of PWR's mobile app is that it allows you to monitor, in real time, the energy use of your air conditioner or heat pump.
How is my data protected?
All data transmission is encrypted using industry-standard protocols. Personal information is stored securely and used only for program operations. For more details, please see PWR's privacy policy.
