POWER LINES
Beat
the
peak
Reducing electricity usage during summer’s hottest days can make a difference in members’ bills. BY JEFF MCCALLISTER
S
ometime soon — perhaps sometime this month, but certainly in July and August — you’re likely to see a “peak alert” notice from your electric cooperative.
It could be an email or text or it could be on social media. Whatever form that alert takes, members across the state should know that while it’s not an emergency or a shortage of electricity, it IS an opportunity for them to save money. “As we head into the summer months and hot, humid weather, we provide our members with peak alert notifications to help raise awareness of the power grid status, especially during busy periods in the mornings and evenings,” says John Metcalf, president and CEO of MidOhio Energy Cooperative in Kenton.
What’s the peak? It’s important that consumer-members are aware of those peaks because electric rates for the entire year are based on the highest points of usage during the year, referred to as “peak demand.” On the hottest days of the summer, when air conditioners and heat pumps across the state are often turned up full blast (it also happens during the most frigid days of winter), the demand for electricity generation inches higher. When your co-op and Buckeye Power — the generation and transmission cooperative that provides the electricity your co-op brings to its members — see that demand heading toward a new peak, they do everything they can to avoid that peak that would trigger a higher rate for the coming year. While reducing usage during those potential peaks won’t lower rates, it will keep future bills from going higher. Kevin Zemanek, assistant vice president of operations at Buckeye Power, says beating those peaks can save the coops $6.5 million to $7.5 million annually. “As much as 25% of a member’s bill can be affected by those peaks that happen in six hours of the year,” says Ben Wilson, director of power delivery engineering at
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OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • JUNE 2022
