For years I have been writing articles warning about the Smart Grid and how the Administration taking over General Motors (GM) was all apart of Obama’s economic plan which included building electric cars that would plug into the Smart Grid.
Recently that prediction has become a reality.
According to an article on Smart Grid News.com GM is set to release an automobile early in 2014 which will plug directly into the Smart Grid:
Cadillac is touting its new ELR extended range EV (it’s a hybrid, not pure EV) as “smart-grid ready” as soon as it comes off the production line.
According to Cadillac, the luxury coupe’s extended-range EV technology – when combined with an OnStar cloud-based connection – gives the ELR the ability to communicate with the electric grid and potentially save energy.
People who purchase the car – expected to top $75,000 when it debuts early next year –
What I find truly disturbing, and what I have been warning about for years, is that automobiles are considered Demand Response Appliances under the Smart Grid. Which means that they can be remotely controlled by the Utility or others. The article confirms this:
will also have access to the OnStar RemoteLink Mobile App, which Cadillac says will give them a way to control and schedule charging, including the ability to do so during cheaper off-peak hours.
“While RemoteLink is really our first smart grid service to be available for consumers, the same connection we use to enable the app’s EV functions can be used to open the door for more energy cost and load control benefits,” said Russ Eling, manager, Smart Grid and EV Services, General Motors.
The company says OnStar has four smart grid application programming interfaces (APIs) utilities and third-parties could use to develop solutions for the ELR. They include:
- Demand response – This future service connects utilities to companies that have intelligent energy management products, allowing OnStar to manage energy use for ELR customers who opt in for the service. Benefits include saving money on energy costs and enabling more efficient use of the electric grid.
- Time-of-Use rates – OnStar can receive dynamic time-of-use pricing from utilities and notify ELR owners of the rate plan offers via email. Owners would be able to use OnStar to load the rate plans directly into their vehicle and access them to schedule charging during lower-rate periods.
- Charging data – OnStar can send and receive EV data including location-based EV data that identifies charging locations and determines potential load scenarios.
- Aggregated services – This solution allows electric service providers to manage the charging of participating vehicles in a given geographic area, with customer consent. This includes the ability to control charging on a large amount of EVs simultaneously. These services could potentially result in a more efficient use of clean energy.
What the article fails to point out is that Onstar can track your speed, remotely deactivate your vehicle and even see if you are wearing your seat belt.
The DHS and NSA already love to illegally track your cell phone calls and internet use. Can you imagine what they will do once they can get their greedy little fingers on that information and power?
I would also like to point out the fact that the new Cadillac will have the ability to display “Dynamic Pricing”. Dynamic Pricing can be defined as: The Price Electricity Costs By The Minute Based Upon Demand.
That’s right. The Smart Grid was designed to force you to reduce your energy usage by increasing electricity rates and charging you buy the minute for your electricity based upon demand. The fact that the 2014 Cadillac will have it as an option means Dynamic Pricing is just around the corner.
You think gas prices are bad now… wait till you see what electricity costs will be in the middle of summer in a few years and everyone is not only running their AC at home, but trying to drive their electric Cadillac to Florida. Talk about an arm and a leg.
As you can see, I’m not some kook which fell off the laugh wagon spewing “The Sky is Falling, The Sky Is Falling.” I’m just a guy who knows too much to sleep well at night. While during the day I fight through the depressing reality that it is not the sky falling.. it’s just your Liberty along with your right to Privacy… slipping away.
Demand response is actually an important part of electrical energy systems in the US and abroad. One of the most important jobs of vertically integrated utilities as well as independent system operators (ISOs) is to supply electrical energy to satisfy the energy demands of the utilities in the most cost efficient manner possible (while ensuring reliability of the grid). One of the complicating factors within electrical power systems is the fact that energy demands are not uniform across time. Demand response helps to equilibrate (“smooth out”) the demand over time by providing voluntary economic incentives to customers to allow for flexibility in their energy demands. Demand response is yet another example of free market innovation.