Energy Conservation – Part 2 in a Series

In November 2007 OEC began a series of articles on conservation – this is the second article in that series. The first article briefly explained the two factors that makes conservation more important than ever – renewable energy and global warming.  This article will explain more in-depth why selling kilowatt-hours and conservation go hand-in-hand.

Ups and Downs of Generation

The demand for power continues to grow and the amount of new generation is not keeping up. The National Energy Regulatory Corporation (NERC), the organization responsible for monitoring the power grid, forecasts U.S. peak power demand will increase by almost 18 percent, or 135,000 MegaWatts, over the next 10 years. Total generation is predicted to grow at a 12.7 percent rate, adding 123,000 MW. That’s a deficit of 12,000 MW of power on a system that is already overloaded.
The key phrase in the above paragraph is “peak power demand”.  If you were to make a graph showing the demand for power in the United States, there would be many peaks and valleys in the graph. At 3 AM there would be a valley as most people are sleeping and the demand for energy is low.  It is a different story at 3 PM when industry is using power, farms are operating their equipment and people are returning home from work or school and turning on everything. This would be a peak on the energy graph. The electric industry has to have enough generating capacity available to meet the need for electricity at the highest point of energy demand on the graph - even if it is only for 15 minutes.  Load management is one way of reducing that peak, possibly avoiding building new generation.
Let’s talk about generation. There are two types of generating plants, base-load and peaking.  Base-load generating plants run all of the time and provide the bulk of electricity. Power produced by base-load plants is relatively inexpensive. Peaking plants only generate electricity during times of high demand when base-load plants can’t generate enough power. Peaking plants are more expensive to run, consequently power generated by a peaking plant costs more to purchase.  The other issue with generating plants is that the electricity they generate cannot be stored.  So at 3 AM when the demand for power is low, the generating plant is losing efficiency because it is generating more power than is needed.  The ideal situation would be to need the same amount of generation all the time.  If this were possible, generating plants could run at their peak efficiency 24 hours a day.  We wouldn’t need peaking plants and the cost of electricity would be more stable. This is where conservation and load management come in. 

Conservation and Load Management – It’s All About Timing

Now that you understand a little more about power generation, it makes sense that we need to curtail our energy use when demand is high and increase our energy use when demand is low.
OEC has several programs designed to do this which are all part of our load management package.  These include our electric heat, air conditioning and water heater programs.  The Time-Of-Use rate is a perfect example of how you can save money by using more power when demand is low, and less power when demand is high. You can conserve energy overall by purchasing energy efficient appliances and compact fluorescent bulbs.
Over the next few months this conservation series will take a closer look at ways you can conserve energy and save money.  If you have questions on this or any topic covered in the local pages of this magazine, call us at 800-472-8410.