SECO Energy Throttling Yesterday: Remote Device(s) Management??
 

Yesterday, just after 1:00 PM I received the following email from SECO with the subject “An Event is Happening Soon”

“Hi idlewild,

On June 9, SECO Energy will manage one or more of your enrolled devices beginning at 2:00 pm to help lower energy use during peak demand. The event will last 4 hours.

You are always in control and can opt out of this event by manually adjusting your device during the event window.

If you have any questions email us at smartconnect@virtual-peaker.com.

Thanks,

The team at SECO Energy“

Then, at 7:00 PM I received a follow up email thanking me for participating.

QUESTIONS:

1. I’m fairly certain but did anyone else receive this message?

2. I appreciate that they were throttling the load during peak temperature extremes (95+) but isn’t this Florida? How often does SECO do this? How

3. (a) I don’t know what “device” I had “enrolled” and/or how I could see that. Does anyone? (b) I’ll assume this is our HVAC but I didn’t see any thermostat temperature changes or other “management” of said “device” from SECO during this 4-hour block. Does anyone? And do finally (c) I also didn’t understand what they meant but overriding my participation by manually adjusting it. How do I opt out of otherwise “unenroll” my device(s) that are apparently opted in automatically?

4. Anything else I should be aware of as a new resident of Florida and SECO customer here?

I’m all for doing my part to help reduce the load (eg turning off lights,, increasing temperatures slightly, etc) but this email hit me as a surprise especially as we weren’t home and have dogs for whom we needed the house to stay cool. (Coming from a major Yankee city, typically we get such notices from our previous energy suppliers the day prior asking customers broadly to lower consumption during a specific period of time - not less than an hour prior to and certainly not in the same “we’re going to adjust your devices for you” vain).

Thanks in advance for any insight here and please forgive me if this is duplicative as it seems it should be relatively comment (I searched the forums prior to posting and couldn’t find any similar posts).

Most of your questions are answered on this SECO Energy SmartConect page.

If you don't remember signing up then it could have happened when you installed a new wifi thermostat or EV charger. Perhaps part of the registration process asked about the program and you clicked through it.

I would be surprised if there was not a line on your bill for the credit you are supposed to receive.

I've heard that SECO had this program but this might be the first time I've heard of them exercising it.

I got the same email yesterday too. I am new to this, but knew I had signed up for it. The funny thing is since we are gone right now, I have the A/C set to 79. I noticed when SECO took control, they changed the A/C to 75. I emailed them and they said they cool for an hour and then set the temperature higher for 3 hours. They then set the thermostat to 80 for those 3 hours. I’m not sure how this saves energy by cooling my house 4 degrees for an hour and then changing it to only 1 degree above where I had set it for those 3 hours.

Our daytime (6a-4p) temp home during summer is 78°. We are in the pool and frequently go in and out of the house. At 4pm temp 77, 9pm temp 76 for sleep.

I have opted out twice, but Seco still had control. Last week I called explained 74°is way too chilly coming from the pool, please remove. You are using more energy than I have programmed. It’s been 7 days will see if they get it right.

I don't have a smart thermostat but I wonder if there is a way to configure it to deny/block the utility access feature.

I got the same email.

I know I signed up for the program when I moved into my new home in November, but this was the first time I heard any more about it.

My A/C is normally set to 75 during the day. I assumed "the event" would just involve the thermostat being turned off or set to a higher temp. I thought I was being smart and manually turned the temp down to 72 at around 1:00 to "pre-cool" the house a bit. I thought about it though, and didn't know if my manual setting before the event would override the event, so I set it back to normal programmed operation at about 1:50 to see what would happen.

To my surprise, at 2:00, SECO had the same idea -- they lowered my AC setpoint to 73 for an hour before then going up to 76 at 3:00. It stayed there until 6:00p. I assume the point was to reduce demand in the 3:00-6:00 timeframe.

During the event, the thermostat had a message on it saying something like "eco+ has been activated to help your electric utility manage peak demand" or something (I should have taken a pic but didn't think about it).

I did get a $50 credit to my bill shortly after signing up for the program, and will apparently get another credit ($10 winter/$20 summer) after each season that I stay enrolled. So far I'm happy to save $50 + $30/yr for them to raise my set temp one degree on occasion.

I'll say this program is leaps and bounds smarter than the similar program I had in VA. There, they wired a special box in to my A/C compressor that when activated, would just cut off power for hours.

I don't recall ever being offered this program by Seco. Do you have to have a smart thermostat?

We have the new meter but never wanted/needed a smart thermostat because we're in and out all day. Also, we have the temp set at 82 around the clock and run the living room and bedroom fans when we want. It's where we're comfortable. Half the time the dogs want to be outside in the sun.
Sitting on the couch and standing in the kitchen, I get a direct hit from the a/c. Half the time I was too cold when we ran it at 78.
(And no, we're not old-and-cold. Been this way forever.)

We opted in a few months ago when our smart thermostat was put in. Saved $ 50 and thought we would give it a try. So far they seem to have not done anything with temps.

You opt in to the program. $50 for signing up, then $20 per year, if memory serves me correctly.

Yes, you need a supported device -- there's a list in the FAQ on the page linked above. I'm using the ecobee that was installed by the builder in my new home.

No amount of money is worth giving them control. You can be sure they will eventually do something you don't want, when you least want it done. I have heard all kinds of horror stories from a similar program UpNorth.

By comparison, UpNorth they also have an optional hourly pricing program. If you sign up, you pay more per KWh during the day (afternoon/early evening most expensive) and less per KWh between midnight and 6AM. I run the dishwasher overnight & charge the Tesla overnight. Other than A/C, those are my 2 biggest energy hogs. They email me a quarterly statement showing a comparison of what I spent to what I would have spent on the standard rate. I have saved $1400 over the last 7.33 years.

No thanks, I manage my own kilowatts average 8 KWs day in winter and 14 KWs in summer a day.

For $70 for the first year and $20 thereafter, people are actually opting into allowing a provider to control their personal comfort? And Ecobee (or Google/Nest et al) is basically providing your data to a third party in real time?

Yikes. I thought this was a "free state."

You are free to sign up for the program, free to choose not to, and free to cancel. What’s the problem?

The adjustments they make are clearly described in the program and limited in frequency and duration. What’s the problem?

At the beginning of this thread you weren’t aware of the program at all but now you know details about how it is being implemented? I’m not interested in doing the research at this point but I would be very surprised if the protocol did not go to great lengths to protect privacy. For example, the communications might only involve a signal sent to an enrolled thermostat to activate a pre-programmed economy feature with no data at all sent from the home to the utility.

You do know you are opted into making monthly donations to the SECO Foundation right?