Big Brother may be watching you – but probably not through a chip in your fridge
Last year’s royal wedding had millions at home watching, cup of tea in hand and a roast in the oven – with their kettle, ovens and televisions causing a peak in electricity. But according to the Mail on Sunday, such pleasures could be spoiled if a new proposal to curtail energy use through chips that could turn off household appliances comes in. Sounds sinister – but is it right?
Fridges and freezers across the land could be arbitrarily switched off to cope with power surges and more variable power supply from renewables, according to the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph.
The story is based on a proposal from the network of organisations that own and operate electricity transmission grids across Europe. The ‘European Network Transmission System Operators for Electricity’ group (ENTSO-E) – which includes the UK’s National Grid – has suggested to the European Commission that a chip could be inserted in new appliances, which would temporarily switch them off when the grid is struggling to balance supply and demand.
The European Commission is expected to use the proposals to feed into changes to regulations governing the electricity market. The proposals are part of a wider push for demand side management – or a smarter electricity grid that will allow network operators to cope with the arrival or more unpredictable power sources like wind and wave power.
Big Brother in your fridge
The Mail on Sunday condemns the “sinister” Big Brother technology, claiming it could allow power companies to intrude into consumer’s lives. Quoted in the piece, MP David Davis says there is “something Soviet” about the idea.
So could the proposal represent a power grab by energy providers from inside every fridge? ENTSO-E says the sensors wouldn’t be able to collect or transmit information to energy companies. ENTSO-E’s secretary general Konstantin Staschus told the Today programme this morning:
“[appliances]…would have only a chip in them that measures the frequency at the plug where it is connected to the wall socket and reacts autonomously – there is no Big Brother, no remote control, not even any telecommunication going on”.
National Grid says that the proposal shouldn’t lead to any spoiled food because appliances would be turned off for such small periods of time. If a device needs more power – to bring down a fridge’s temperature, for example – it would turn on again.
Making fridges more expensive
The proposal looks set to increase the cost of new appliances – but it’s not clear how much they’ll add. The Mail on Sunday also warns that the new sensors “could add £40” to the price of fridges and washing machines. Speaking on the Today programme, Konstantin Staschus said the sensor “adds less than £5 to the cost of an appliance”.
We also spoke to Viktor Sundberg, vice president of environmental and European Union affairs at Electrolux, who is quoted in the Mail on Sunday. He agrees that the paper’s figure of £40 is probably high. According to Sundberg, the additional cost from comparable technologies like smart plugs is more like £13 to £20.
Despite the increased upfront costs, the chips should make it cheaper to manage the grid. Operators like National Grid currently have to pay generators to switch on or off to balance supply and demand – so more responsiveness on the demand side could reduce those costs. But Staschus admitted on the Today programme that regulators and the European Commission still need to ensure those savings get passed on to the consumer.
A question of choice
The Mail on Sunday’s story highlights tensions between bottom-up and top-down energy efficiency measures. Marco Signa from industry body European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers says ENTSO-E’s proposal don’t represent as good a deal for consumers as devices like smart appliances, which give consumers more control over their energy use.
Smart appliances would allow consumers to choose whether to use appliances when electricity is abundant and receive a cheaper rate in return. In contrast, the new chips would monitor how much electricity was on the grid and switch off automatically – meaning households wouldn’t get compensated for using energy more smartly. That means consumers could end up paying more more for appliances without saving any money on energy bills – with all the benefits going to operators, Signa says.
It’s still not certain which package of policies the EU will come out with in the end. The proposals still haven’t progressed through the European Commission’s decision making procedure – which is likely to take a few months at least. So it looks like Big Brother may not be getting his hands on your fridge just yet.