Some power companies in Texas are remotely adjusting the smart thermostats of users enrolled in their energy saving programs to reduce strain on power grids
Texas utilities are using enrolled households’ thermostats as a dispatchable demand-control tool, part of a broader grid-operations shift that also includes software, sensors, batteries, and automation intended to manage complex grids. The practical trade-off is that participating customers give utilities some control over comfort during periods of grid stress.
The approach is not isolated: a later Colorado energy-emergency thermostat lockout showed how enrollment-based controls can restrict customer access when utilities invoke grid conditions. In Texas, later policy has extended emergency curtailment authority to large data-center loads, placing household demand response within a wider hierarchy of controllable electricity users.
First-order effects
Enrolled Texas customers can have their thermostats adjusted remotely during periods of grid strain, reducing their immediate control over indoor temperature.
Participating power companies gain a fast, distributed way to lower demand without directly cutting service to those households.
Second-order effects
Energy-saving programs become a more consequential customer-acquisition tool: utilities must make the terms of remote control clear enough to sustain enrollment when grid events occur.
As Texas adds mechanisms to curb large loads in emergencies, including data-center curtailment authority, utilities can combine household demand response with controls aimed at major electricity users.
Third-order effects
Grid reliability increasingly depends on a power-control layer that can adjust consumption across homes and large commercial loads, rather than relying solely on additional supply.
The distribution of curtailment burdens becomes a policy issue: Texas’s later pause on new data-center connection approvals pending audits reflects the same pressure to decide which loads the grid can accommodate and which it can control.
The trend: Electricity systems are moving toward managed demand, with connected devices and large-load restrictions becoming tools for balancing constrained grids.
Texans discover an ERCOT-linked company remotely accessed their home thermostats to turn off their ACs. https://www.wfaa.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@dcseifert
Dan Seifert on x
no such thing as a free lunch: if you got a discount on your smart thermostat from your utility provider, better read the fine print to what you agreed to. it's not unlike getting a discount on your auto insurance by letting them track how you drive and where you go. https://twit…
@arvindpawan1
Arvind Ravikumar on x
A cautionary tale on the behavioral impacts of large-scale demand response. Not gonna lie, I'd be pretty miffed too if someone changed my thermostat remotely. Perhaps, we can think about scenarios of of low-stakes, high flexibility demand response? https://www.khou.com/...
@elpasotimes
@elpasotimes on x
Some owners of smart thermostats in Texas found their pre-set temperatures went up, all done remotely by their power company. https://www.elpasotimes.com/ ...
@erratarob
@erratarob on x
The infosec community shares part of the blame, as they are encouraging management of devices to move out of your control and into the cloud, to be controlled by somebody else. https://twitter.com/...
@apoorv_bh89
Apoorv Bhargava on x
As climate change continues to challenge our existing systems, it's critical that behavioral programs of this kind evolve to become smarter to real world human AND grid conditions, and that we don't use archaic set point based approaches of “78 degrees” https://www.khou.com/...
@stealthygeek
Patrick S. Tomlinson on x
Freedom to broil to death in your own bedroom. https://twitter.com/...
@vickerysec
Chris Vickery on x
Hey Everyone. You were warned. Now it's happening. Every “smart” thing you own can be turned against you when it's convenient and profitable for a faceless third-party who has access to it. You overslept and now you're in the nightmare. Congratulations!🎉 https://www.dailydot.com/…
@film_girl
Christina Warren on x
Literally an @internetofshit moment. This is why I'm opposed to smart stuff touching my heating or cooling. Not that I have central AC in this damn city but still. https://twitter.com/...
@grantstern
@grantstern on x
Sounds like some awful, failed socialist experiment @tedcruz should rail against instead of vacationing in Cancun. https://www.khou.com/...
@nuclear94
Jeff Terry on x
Texas Power Companies Remotely Raise Temps Amid Energy Shortage. Jt: don't sign up for bad programs, especially when you don't read through to see what they entail. https://www.dailydot.com/...
@mollyjongfast
Molly Jong-Fast on x
This state does not seem to be run great https://twitter.com/...
@jgamblin
Jerry Gamblin on x
Alternative Headline: Someone didn't remember what they signed up for. https://twitter.com/...
@natebeachw
Nate Beach-Westmoreland on x
“In exchange for an entry into sweepstakes, electric customers allow them to control their thermostats during periods of high energy demand.” https://twitter.com/...
@phil_lewis_
Philip Lewis on x
Some Texans shocked to find their smart thermostats were raised remotely - many of them claim it's been happening since the energy shortage began https://www.khou.com/...
@karlbode
Karl Bode on x
between freezing to death from greed and underinvestment, to losing control of their own tech because they signed an overlong and misleading end user agreement, Texans are getting one hell of a crash course on why competent regulatory oversight matters https://twitter.com/...