Thing is, as solar and wind pick up, there are going to be more and more cases where excess energy is generated for certain periods of time, and it will be advantageous to have certain businesses who can soak up lots of energy for some profitable use. And if those operations are flexible in terms of their hours of operation, they can then take credits for pausing operations at times when supply is short.<p>You have baseline power generation with plants that take a long time to start up or shutdown, and then you make up the rest with generation plants that can be started or shutdown on shorter notice. It makes sense to also have consumers that can also be started or shut down on short notice, in order to help balance the overall market.
Business model:<p>0. Buy 5000 cheap space heaters at 1.5kW each.<p>1. Rent some cheap giant warehouse near Austin-Bergstrom airport.<p>2. Wait until ERCOT issues a power alert.<p>3. Crank them.<p>4. Refuse their first offer.<p>5. Take their second.<p>6. Profit!<p>Like these Ponzi schemers wasting resources for a volatile fiction, it's profitability by gamification of brinksmanship.