"Thermal fleet" ...I like that term.
I think Jigar was referring specifically to behind-the-meter flexible-load control.
Yes, pre-heating (and pre-cooling) turns the building and the hot-water tank into thermal energy storage (with no occupant impact, if done right).
Yep. We use it to generally mean coal and natural gas although I suppose anything that deals with steam falls into that category like oil and even nuke.
The thermal is retiring crazy fast. NERC is very alarmed and there have been many Senate and FERC hearings on this lately. Once it's gone, it's not easy to get setup again. A lot of plant maintenance lives in the skills of the workers, so once they've relocated it can be difficult to restart. I agree with the goals of a transition, but it needs to be managed carefully and orderly so we don't drastically increase our amounts of blackouts. At the same time, we'll need to make greater strides with flexible loads of course.
