Homeowner
Goal: Earn at least $40/month and always have enough battery to ride out a blackout.
Fear: Waking up to an empty battery during an outage.
Lever: You can opt out at any time — every opt-out costs the aggregator.
A table exercise · 32 minutes
Whose Battery?
A data center wants to rent the battery in your garage. Cut the deal, then survive the summer.
Data centers need power on the hottest evenings. California has ~1.76 million solar homes with no battery. What if the data center paid households to add one — and borrowed it on peak days? You'll negotiate that deal at your table.
Setup · 3 minutes
Pick your seat
Read your card. The battery has 10 bars. The data center pays $100 per home per month. That's all the numbers.
Host panel
The host plays the regulator
Keep time, draw events, and ask whose rules were followed. The regulator can ask for evidence and hear each seat; the host does not decide who is right.
Round 1 · The Deal · 8 minutes
Deal Sheet
1. Reserve floor · 4 of 10 bars stay home
0 bars10 bars
2. Split · share the $100 monthly payment
Split adds up to $100.
Round 2 · The Summer · 10 minutes
Draw two events
Per event: 4 minutes. Every table sees the same draw order for its table number.
Event 1 · 4 min
Event 2 · 4 min
Round 3 · The Repair · 6 minutes
Write one rule for changing rules
Draw one more event. Decide who finds a problem, who decides what it means, and what happens next.
Exit · 5 minutes
Deal health
Tables that repaired their deal usually kept their homes. That's the whole lesson.
Elinor Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel for showing communities can govern shared resources — if the rules can be monitored, adjusted, and enforced with graduated penalties. Your battery runs on a seconds-long loop; your rules run on a months-long one. Keep them aligned.
Whose Battery?
A data center wants to rent the battery in your garage. Cut the deal, then survive the summer.
Host plays regulator. Battery: 10 bars. Payment: $100 per home per month.
Homeowner
Goal: Earn at least $40/month and always have enough battery to ride out a blackout.
Fear: Waking up to an empty battery during an outage.
Lever: You can opt out at any time — every opt-out costs the aggregator.
Data center
Goal: Get four hours of guaranteed power on the ten hottest days, cheaper than a diesel generator.
Fear: The power isn't there when you call.
Lever: You write the checks, and you can walk away and build gas instead.
Aggregator
Goal: Keep 90% of homes signed up for three years; take a cut of every payment.
Fear: Mass opt-out after one bad night.
Lever: You hold the remote control and the app — you decide what everyone sees.
Community advocate
Goal: Benefits reach renters and low-income neighbors, not only solar owners.
Fear: A deal that quietly becomes a rate hike for everyone else.
Lever: You can go to the regulator or the press — once.
Renter, no solar
Goal: Get anything at all from a deal you weren't invited to.
Fear: Paying higher bills to fund other people's batteries.
Lever: Your vote in the community meeting.
Deal Sheet · Table # ____
Reserve floor: □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □
Split: Homeowner ____% · Aggregator ____% · Community fund ____% (must total 100)
Overrides/month ____ · Who can say no? __________________ · First strike: warning / fine / out
Homes in ____/5 · Repairs made ____
HEAT WAVE (tests: reserve floor)
It's 104°F. The grid is an hour from rolling blackouts. The data center calls every battery down to the floor — third time this week. Homeowner, the floor is what you agreed. Honor it, or hit opt-out tonight?
Act as written → fast loop. Reopen a term → slow loop. Mark one.
THE BILL (tests: split)
The utility adds $18/month to every bill in the county for grid upgrades — renters included. Your deal pays solar homes only. Advocate, your phone is ringing.
Act as written → fast loop. Reopen a term → slow loop. Mark one.
THE OXYGEN MACHINE (tests: needs change)
The homeowner's mother moves in with an oxygen concentrator. Your reserve floor is no longer enough. The contract says nothing about this. New floor? Who pays for the lost bars?
Act as written → fast loop. Reopen a term → slow loop. Mark one.
THE SILENT OVERRIDE (tests: override + detection)
The aggregator's software drained batteries below the floor four nights last month. Nobody noticed until a homeowner checked the app. Aggregator says 'bug.' First offense — who caught it, who judges, what's the penalty?
Act as written → fast loop. Reopen a term → slow loop. Mark one.
THE BETTER OFFER (tests: first strike / opt-out)
A rival offers $30/month more, no floor, no community fund. Two of five homes want to leave. Can they? What does it cost them — and you?
Act as written → fast loop. Reopen a term → slow loop. Mark one.
THE DATA CENTER GROWS (tests: fast loop outruns slow)
The data center doubles its load. It wants 6 bars instead of 4 starting next week, +20% pay. Your deal renegotiates yearly. Wait a year, or change the rule about changing rules?
Act as written → fast loop. Reopen a term → slow loop. Mark one.