Buy electric power when the cost is low, store it in your home or business, and use it when the price of power is high. Many electric utilities are moving toward differential pricing; during peak use hours (typically daytime and early evening), they charge more for electricity, and charge less in the middle of the night, when they have excess generating capacity.
GridPoint is a startup that makes a filing cabinet size set of batteries with a built in computer which knows your local electric rates. The computer charges the batteries when rates are low, and then automatically puts the power back out when rates are high.
As the price of power goes up, ideas like this would become increasingly attractive. It's an idea that mirrors the Internet--instead of a single huge electric generating facility (think mainframe computer), we'll see more and more decentralized electric systems (think desktop computers). It spreads the cost across a larger number of people, and in the case of Gridpoint, creates no pollution, but makes the electric grid more efficient by creating stored energy points.
Gridpoint is marketing initially to businesses that need reliable power (think Internet access and computers). The Gridpoint box acts as the primary power source during power outages, so it has a dual use, reducing electric costs continuously and by providing an alternative energy source during power interruptions. In the aftermath of Katrina, it was lack of power that crippled many businesses in the region, not flooding.
Gridpoint is a perfect example of a new business opportunity in the emerging Energy Economy. How about your regional economic development plans? Do they include a strategy for leveraging local assets for the Energy Economy? If not, why not?