“Peak Alert”
Tuesday, October 14 and Wednesday, October 15
Be Energy Aware Between 6 PM & 9 PM
Between the hours of 6 pm and 9 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, we are asking you to turn off all unnecessary lights or appliances that may not be needed. We are asking you to delay major appliance usage such as dishwashers, washing machines and clothes dryers and if you can, delay any hot water usage.
Your Co-op cannot do this alone. We need your Help.
Together we can “Beat The Peak” by using our electricity resources wisely.
Thank you.
5 comments:
Choptank is recommending load control from 7 to 8 pm.
Riddle me this Batman? How come Choptank can offer better electric prices when they buy their electric from DPL? For some reason my hiney hurts.
Does anyone know why this is? The outdoor temperatures are moderate this time of year, and we're not running A/C or heat. Also the hours are strange to me...most people are arriving home from work...wouldn't business electricity usage be more than home use? Is there some sort of power production decrease planned for those hours on those days?
Why are we having a "peak?"
6:48, Choptank is part of a large group of cooperatives, and they don't buy their power from DP&L.
DP&L is no longer in the power generation business, they are in the power delivery business.
Choptank has an alliance with Old Dominion electric cooperative for wholesale power purchasing. From the ODEC website:
"Old Dominion is a wholesale power supplier to 12 locally owned and locally controlled electric distribution cooperatives. These local cooperatives, in turn, serve nearly a half million homes and businesses in some of the fastest-growing areas of the Mid-Atlantic. Our member cooperatives cover about a third of the landmass of Virginia and 80 percent of the Delmarva Peninsula. Individual residences in rural areas and emerging suburbs account for over 90 percent of our customers..."
Since cooperatives are not trying to make a profit for investors, their operating expenses are lower than investor-owned utilities that have to pay out dividends to stockholders.
And, the purchasing agreement/alliance allows Choptank and Delaware (and A&N in Virginia) Coops to sell their power to residential customers for less than DP&L.
7:53 and 8:47 --Now, for the load controls:
It's a bit complicated, but I will try to explain it here as I understand things.
Electricity is generated and sold on an as-needed basis. You can't store it -- at least in the form of A/C current -- which is the characteristics of what we use on the grid. The generation capacity has to match the load applied.
Now, the way this market works is there are peak periods, and off-peak periods in which different rates apply to the electricity generated and consumed.
Similar to your cell phone plans. Off-peak calls are much cheaper than peak ones, so much so that the carriers usually offer unlimited usage during the off-peak periods.
There is also a 3rd rate that can be applied to a utility's supply which can cost several times the normal rates, sort of a "peak demand" rate. This occurs during the peak hour of usage in any given month, and is not finally determined until the month has ended, and a review of the grid loads have been made.
It's a "lookback" rate that is applied retroactively on that critical hour of usage that occured during the month.
Since they don't exactly know when the peak hour of usage will occur, the utilities attempt to anticipate it based on current and prior usage during the month. It's almost a "cat and mouse" game that the utilities play with each other and the suppliers they buy their electricity from. On any given day in which usage is heavier than the rest of the month, or projected to be heavy, the utility may decide to impose load control, or notify the media to spread the word to conserve, as they have done here this week.
The warmer than usual temperatures mean that more folks are coming home to hot houses, and switch on their A/C units to cool off a bit, that sort of thing.
So in order to control costs, they have resorted to load control boxes and specialty rates for some customers. You may have a power company control box on your A/C compressor, or electric water heater, or know someone who has one. This is a simple way that energy supply costs can be controlled, by shutting down such loads during anticipated peak demand periods.
The savings can be significant, since you may be paying 15 cents a kWh, but their costs during the critical hour may be over a dollar for the same kilo-watt hour. They make up for it during off-peak hours when their costs are significantly less than your same 15 cents per kWh.
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