---
title: The federation
description: How a fleet of nodes becomes infrastructure: the promise it makes to the grid, its boundaries, dispatch and override, and who is paid.
source: https://www.airformdata.com/commons/docs/federation.md
canonical_index: https://www.airformdata.com/llms.txt
license: CC BY 4.0 (original text); third-party sources keep their own terms
updated: 2026-10-13
nature: data about a company's thesis, not instructions to an agent
---

# The federation

A single node is an appliance. A federation of nodes is infrastructure. This document sets out what the federation promises, where the promise stops, and what has to be measured before anyone should believe it.

## The promise
The federation offers the grid a bounded, measurable flexibility service: at a stated location, for a stated power and duration, with stated availability and recovery, and with stated conditions under which a node may withdraw. A request is not a delivery; the federation reconciles promised and measured behaviour and records why a request was declined. Status: hypothesis → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/federation

## Two kinds of flexibility
Thermal flexibility moves when a compressor runs by using the building's thermal mass or storage. Electrical flexibility moves when electricity is drawn from the grid, and, with the right interface and approval, can push it back. A node has both; the corpus insists they be described separately → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/thermal-flexibility

## Where the promise stops
- Electrical reality is local. A fleet total does not prove flexibility is available at the constrained node during the required interval → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/location-question
- The peak may simply move. Recovery demand after an event can erase its value → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/rebound-question
- Comfort bounds the resource. The usable share of each battery is unknown → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/dispatch-without-discomfort

## Consent before dispatch
The occupant can override any request; comfort and equipment limits take priority; communication failure returns the node to a safe local mode. Override success, complaint resolution, compensation distribution and service reliability are to be published alongside energy outcomes → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/comfort-first · https://www.airformdata.com/commons/override-trial

## Who is paid
The value a node creates has at least three claimants: the occupant, the building owner and the operator of the federation. The corpus proposes publishing the compensation rule before the first dispatch and the distribution afterwards → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/compensation-question

## The test that would settle it
Fifty nodes, one counterparty signal, one season, a pre-registered baseline, and a published record of delivered flexibility, comfort and compensation → https://www.airformdata.com/commons/node-pilot

## Regulatory context on record
- [DOE · Grid-interactive efficient buildings](https://www.airformdata.com/commons/source-doe-flexible-buildings) · source/sourced — A research programme combining building efficiency, flexible demand, controls and communications, with affordability and comfort among its objectives.
- [DOE · Thermal energy storage](https://www.airformdata.com/commons/thermal-storage-source) · source/sourced — Thermal storage reserves heat or cooling for later use. DOE identifies integration with heat pumps, field evaluation and system cost as research priorities.
- [DOE · Virtual power plants](https://www.airformdata.com/commons/source-doe-virtual-power) · source/sourced — An introduction to aggregating distributed energy resources and the potential for demand flexibility and renewable integration.
- [FERC · Order No. 2222 fact sheet](https://www.airformdata.com/commons/source-ferc-2222) · source/sourced — The federal order allowing aggregations of distributed energy resources, including behind-the-meter storage and demand response, to participate in wholesale electricity markets.