Ever heard of a Negawatt? To understand a negawatt, you need to know first what a megawatt is. A megawatt is a large amount of electrical power. So the cleverly named negawatt just means not using a megawatt of electricity. It’s a great concept for reducing the need for more power plants and with the latest high-tech power usage monitoring tools that are available it is finally becoming a practical solution. Technically, Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute coined the term “negawatts” in 1989, for conserved energy.
CNET takes an inside look at one such anti-power control center in New England called EnerNoc.
When a utility or power generator gives EnerNoc a signal, technicians in the operations center alert their customers and then dial down their energy usage using the Internet.
The changes can be relatively simple, such as turning down the lights in a hotel lobby for 15 minutes. But added together, they can lighten the load significantly on the grid during peak times and potentially obviate the need to build more power plants.
Utilities also want to avoid turning on expensive and dirty “peaking plants” that get turned on at peak times, such as the middle of a hot summer day, when air conditioners are on high.
Here is a longer article about the history and current state of the Negawatt.
Amazingly, someone actually wrote a poem about the Negawatt (in the comments of the previous article). Read it at your own risk…
A Negawatt
A negawatt is a megawatt saved,
A negawatt is the path to be paved,
Energy efficiency is what we strive to be,
For negawatt savings are real.A negawatt is power not used,
And none of us should be excused,
From keeping on the switches, wasting power in glitches,
Running of electrons is abused.Leaving lights on when they are not needed,
Disconnects on microwaves not heeded,
We keep in the power plug and it turns into a slug,
By draining power which from the grid is feeded.Negawatts are megawatts to save,
The negawatt should be the path to crave,
Energy efficiency is what we strive to be,
Yes, negawatt savings are real.