  In discussions at the 2015 HICSS meeting, it was argued that loads can
provide most of the ancillary services required today and in the future.
Through load-level and grid-level control design, high-quality ancillary
service for the grid is obtained without impacting quality of service delivered
to the consumer. This approach to grid regulation is called demand dispatch:
loads are providing service continuously and automatically, without consumer
interference.
  In this paper we ask, what intelligence is required at the grid-level? In
particular, does the grid-operator require more than one-way communication to
the loads? Our main conclusion: risk is not great in lower frequency ranges,
e.g., PJM's RegA or BPA's balancing reserves. In particular, ancillary services
from refrigerators and pool-pumps can be obtained successfully with only
one-way communication. This requires intelligence at the loads, and much less
intelligence at the grid level.
