LIGHT READING INLAND POWER AND LIGHT inlandpower.com
JA N UA RY 2 0 1 7
Remembering A Year Ago It’s hard to believe that at this time last year the Inland Northwest was recovering from two epic storms. We were thanking the majority of our members for your patience and understanding as we worked through power restoration efforts from the devastating wind storm that occurred on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. This was the largest outage event in Inland Power’s 78-year history. At the peak of the storm we had over 33,000 members without power. This is equivalent to 82 percent of our membership. We truly appreciate the support, patience and understanding you provided to Inland Power and its employees during the storm.
Overhead Re-Conductor Projects
At the peak of restoration, we had eight contract crews, two tree trimming crews and eight crews from neighboring utilities working alongside Inland Power’s seven crews. This made for a total of 25 crews and three times our normal workforce. Due to this valiant effort, most all line damage was repaired and the majority of our impacted members were back on within three days and all members were restored before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Deer Park Area • Casberg-Burroughs Rd from Scotts Valley Rd (1 mile east) • Tarbert Rd from N Glengrove Staley Rd (1 mile south) • N Glengrove Staley Rd from Glengrove Staley Rd (1.4 miles north) Bigelow • N Lehman Rd from Moffat Rd (¾ mile south) Deer Lake • East Deer Lake Rd from Garden Spot Rd (3 miles north) Loon Lake • Larson Beach Rd from South Loon Lake Rd (2.5 miles south)
“We appreciate the opportunity to be your cooperative. We look forward to a great 80th year of serving your energy needs.”
Just as we had recovered from this devastating windstorm, on December 21 the snow began to fall. By late evening on December 22, we had trees falling all over our system. Time after time, lines would be repaired just to come down again as more trees would snap or sag into our lines. This storm has been named the “White Christmas Storm” and most of our employees worked tirelessly until the last member was finally restored on December 30. In total, these two storms cost Inland Power over $3 million in recovery costs and were accounted for in our 2015 financial statement and net margins. Thanks to the incredible efforts of our staff, we have received over $2.3 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to help offset the cost of the storms. We have also been allocated over $5 million in FEMA mitigation funding which we will be investing into our infrastructure and improving our system reliability by making improvements in 2017 in several areas, primarily:
Overhead to Underground Projects
Newman Lake (see graphic above) • West Newman Lake Rd from Shady Rd (4.5 miles south) • East Newman Lake Rd from Muzzy Rd to N McCoy Rd (3.5 miles south) • Newman Lake to Greenbluff - Muzzy Rd to Mt Spokane Park Drive (7.5 miles north) Blanchard/Priest River • HooDoo Loop Rd from Tweedie Rd to Old Priest River Rd (7.2 miles north) Spirit Lake • Hero Ave (2 miles) • Hero Ave across Hwy 41 to Paisley Rd (1.2 miles south) All these projects will help us harden our system and significantly reduce any future outages.
i nland powe r is my coope rat ive
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
WE ARE A MEMBER-OWNED ENERGY COOPERATIVE COMMITTED TO SAFE, RELIABLE SERVICE AT COMPETITIVE RATES. - i n l a n d p o w e r m i s s i o n stat e m e n t
Ending the Thermostat Debate
ENERGY SAFETY
Does it save money to turn my heat down at night or is it better to leave it set at one temperature? The answer is... another question…how do you heat your home? General Thermostat Operation: You can save as much as 10% a year on heating and cooling by simply turning your thermostat back 7°- 10°F for 8 hours a day from its normal setting. A common misconception associated with thermostats is that a furnace works harder than normal to warm the space back to a comfortable temperature after the thermostat has been set back, resulting in little or no savings. In fact, as soon as your house drops below its normal temperature, it will lose energy to the surrounding environment more slowly. The lower the interior temperature, the slower the heat loss. Thermostats for Homes with Heat Pumps: Programmable thermostats are generally not recommended for heat pumps. In its cooling mode, a heat pump operates like an air conditioner, so turning up the thermostat (either manually or with a programmable thermostat) will save energy and money. But when a heat pump is in its heating mode, setting back its thermostat can cause the unit to operate inefficiently, thereby canceling out any savings achieved by lowering the temperature setting. Maintaining a moderate setting is the most cost-effective practice. Recently, however, there are specially designed programmable thermostats for heat pumps, which make setting back the thermostat cost-effective. These thermostats typically use outdoor temperature sensors to minimize the use of backup electric resistance heat systems. Source: ENERGY.GOV
Generator Safety One of the most dangerous and most talked about issues that comes up every winter season is the use of emergency generators. There are several safety considerations when it comes to their care and use. Safety precautions during an outage If you connect your generator into your home electrical system you must completely disconnect your home from the utility source. A common circuit breaker is not the best method to accomplish this task. A device that allows you to see the open connection (blade or similar switch) is best. An open connection is probably the most critical element when it comes to emergency generators so that these two things do not happen when you start your generator: • First, your generator will try to pick up the load it sees in the utility system, which it is not able to do. Shortly after that, it will overload and either open a breaker or burn up the generator. • Secondly, for the time your generator is feeding into the utility system it will be back feeding through the line transformers thereby placing a voltage in excess of 12,000 volts onto the de-energized utility power system. This back feed voltage can seriously endanger the Inland line workers who are working on the lines trying to restore power. Generator set-up • Inspect your generator for loose parts, bare wires and faulty breakers before use. • When running, always place
your generator set outside and downwind so hazardous levels of CO2 do not accumulate. • It is safest to completely isolate your generator from your house wiring and ultimately from the utility power system. This can be done by running an extension cord directly from your generator to the appliance you want to run. In an electrical power outage situation, consider the above precautions to keep yourself, your family and others safe. Electrical work to your meter base In addition, if you hire an electrician to do work around your meter. Please be aware that they are not authorized to pull the meter from its base. By pulling the meter, Inland Power is notified that your home is experiencing an outage. We then send a crew to your home to investigate and restore your power. If they arrive to find that the meter has been tampered with, by you or an electrician, you will receive a $250 meter tampering fee. To avoid this fee, please have your electrician schedule a free disconnect and reconnect of service with our office at (509) 789-4277.
VISIT INLANDPOWER.COM FOR MORE ENERGY EFFICIENCY TIPS
2015 INLAND POWER FUEL MIX ALLOCATION 2015
FUEL MIX REPORT
83% HYDRO 10% NUCLEAR 4% WIND 2% COAL 1% NATURAL GAS
10110 W HALLETT ROAD
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Washington state law requires that all utilities report annually on the fuel mix used to produce the electricity sold to consumers. In 2015, Inland Power purchased all of its power from BPA for resale and distribution to our members. The majority of that power is generated from the hydroelectric dams along the Columbia and Snake Rivers. We are fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest and receive this clean, efficient source of power.
SPOKANE, WA 99224
During 2015, Inland Power also purchased wind renewable energy credits equaling approximately 3% of its total load to meet I-937 requirements. This increased to 9% in 2016 and will equate to 15% beginning in 2020. Inland Power is one of the greenest utilities and the energy it provides is 87% renewable and 97% carbon free.
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