Late Stage Capitalism

The headline makes it sound like someone pranked them (at least to me) but the reality is a bit different:

The family’s smart thermostat was installed a few years ago as part of a new home security package. Many smart thermostats can be enrolled in a program called "Smart Savers Texas." It's operated by a company called EnergyHub.

The agreement states that in exchange for an entry into sweepstakes, electric customers allow them to control their thermostats during periods of high energy demand. EnergyHub’s list of its clients include TXU Energy, CenterPoint and ERCOT.

I mean, if it's between smart thermostats (which my apartment has, I don't have direct control over the temperature of my AC rn) following the guidelines set forth by our government so our power grid doesn't shut down again during extreme weather, which could have very serious consequences (just as it did last winter), and assholes ignoring that and threatening the health of an already outdated and broken system. I'd much rather lose a lil control and be uncomfortable for a month or two, than overheat and be in poor health because some dipshit refused to reduce their power consumption.

I don't think people realize the grid in Texas hasn't been substantially upgraded to handle the higher loads our cities have grown into having, nor do people understand extreme temperatures lower the total load the grid is capable of handling. Last winter, it was shown to us that our grid wasn't designed for prolonged periods of freezing temperatures (legit, where I grew up just 4 hours north of where I'm living now, I had seen ice on the ground and it had "snowed" if you can call it that. But I hadn't seen real snow until the storms, it's not something engineers considered very strongly while designing how our systems should work in Texas), and big surprise the same issues that exist due to cold are exacerbated by heat.

The two big issues here are the bourgeoisie fucks who refuse to upgrade the grid, and the bourgeoisie fucks who ignored climate change, because we're just entering a tipping point where we're going to start seeing more frequent extreme weather, that our grid wasn't designed for, and the people who could have done something about it ignored the issue.

So I'll reiterate, I fully accept this. It's better than the alternative.