The first European domestic trial of smart fridges is about to start in the West Midlands with the lucky residents of Sandwell getting the first 300 appliances.

 The idea of smart fridges first hit the media back in 2008 when the newspapers trumpeted their arrival on the scene and applauded the hopes that some two million tonnes of carbon emissions would be saved by their use every year.

Now the first smart fridges are about to show just how smart they are.
For the uninitiated, the technology behind smart fridges is not about judging when to throw Sunday’s shepards pie out, but their ability to switch on and off according to energy demands through the national grid.

The theory is simplicity itself. Each smart fridge is sent messages by the national grid which tells the domestic appliance when to switch itself off and thereby reduce the overall demand for power. These messages are sent every second and simply say stay on, switch off, or reduce power consumption.
So, when the people of England all jump up at half time in the World Cup to pop on the kettle just after Rooney has put the side three nil up, the smart fridges of Sandwell will throttle back as demand for power hits the roof. Their owners won’t notice and nor will the food inside, as everything is timed just to let the pressure off, not cause a mini-blackout.

It’s all about the collective good; how intelligent appliances can be told to go easy for a bit and help save some juice for everyone else. And the fridge is the ideal candidate of course. Tell the television to take a nap and it most probably will do so just as Rooney slots home the winning penalty. The cooker would also find it hard to take a break halfway through the Sunday roast. Smart fridges are therefore blazing a trail; the pioneers of what experts call dynamic demand technology.
And it all comes down to the energy providers having to not only burn fossil fuels to cope with baseload demand (needed to keep the grid stable), but also having to provide back-up power stations to balance the grid at peak times.

The theory goes that if everyone had a smart fridge in the UK, then one 750 megawatt power station providing cover could be switched off. And as the cost of balancing the grid is some £770 million a year, then the savings could be dramatic and help reduce domestic energy bills and bring down carbon emissions.

The two-year smart fridge trial will eventually involve some 3,000 devices, with npower acting as one of the organisers. If that works, then other devices such as air conditioning units could be next.
What’s more, a better balancing of the national grid should mean the chance for renewable technologies, such as solar and wind power (variable to say the least), to get a better foothold, as they tell their ‘market’ when generating is slow and to hold back on power.
So a win-win situation for all concerned? Well no, not quite. As always, there’s a possible cloud on the horizon. As one energy industry spokesperson dryly pointed out, although it’s great reducing demand by using mechanisms such as dynamic demand technology, they’re not sure whether this will lead to a genuine drop in demand, or whether the saved power will just be used elsewhere; in an area not equipped with dynamic demand.

In other words, the smart fridges might happily sacrifice themselves, in order to find that the saved power is being used up by some not-so diligent swimming pool heater, meaning that expensive balancing provided by the old fossil fuel power stations will still be required.
Few like the idea of that theory, but when Britain’s economy begins to come out of recession and power consumption increases, it may well be that some of the extra demand is filled by power saving devices such as smart fridges, but it’s more likely most of the shortfall will be generated by the existing, and ever harder working, fossil fuel power stations.

And with the Government coalition taking a scythe to various initiatives and programmes, who’s to say that the joined-up thinking required to push through concepts like dynamic demand will be around much longer? 

Not the cold shoulder maybe, but it may well turn out that the smart fridge is going to sit at the back of the class and wonder where all the clever kids have gone. 

…ends…