I was going to sign us up for ComEd's Central AC Cycling program, but it turns out you have to own, not rent. That's too bad. Basically signing up for the program would allow ComEd to turn off your AC for certain intervals of time when electricity demand is very high. You get a $5 or $10 credit during the summer months for participation. Reducing demand for electricity during peak usage times like that reduces the need for utilities to power up extra generators (likely to be some on the dirtiest).
Maybe soon I'll blog more about ComEd's Real Time Pricing option. We're not signed up yet because I'm still reading about it but I think it's a great idea.
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Peaking plants used to meet peak demand are often actually the *cleanest* because they are run on natural gas, which is much less carbon intensive than coal plants that serve the base load (not as clean as wind or solar, granted). A big problem with peaking units is that they are expensive to run because they run so infrequently.
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