The power of participation

In May’s col­umn, I described how indi­vid­ual ener­gy choic­es, such as adjust­ing your ther­mo­stat or lim­it­ing appli­ance use dur­ing high demand peri­ods, can con­tribute to a sta­ble pow­er grid and low pow­er costs for every­one. The grid works like a bal­anc­ing act, match­ing the sup­ply of elec­tric­i­ty with demand in real time. When that bal­ance tips, espe­cial­ly dur­ing extreme weath­er or peak hours, pow­er becomes more expen­sive. When it comes to YEC deliv­er­ing reli­able and afford­able ener­gy, what hap­pens in your home tru­ly mat­ters.

York Elec­tric offers pro­grams designed to reduce your ener­gy use dur­ing peak events. These efforts, called demand response pro­grams, help man­age the tim­ing of ener­gy use across our sys­tem. In turn, that helps hold down our oper­at­ing costs—savings that we can con­tin­ue pass­ing onto you.

Through our Smart Ther­mo­stat Pro­gram, mem­bers can pur­chase an ecobee smart ther­mo­stat at a dis­count­ed rate or use their own eli­gi­ble device. These ther­mostats con­nect to a home Wi-Fi sys­tem, allow­ing cus­tom and sched­uled ther­mo­stat adjust­ments. Dur­ing sys­tem-wide peak peri­ods, York Elec­tric tem­porar­i­ly adjusts an enrolled smart ther­mo­stat, usu­al­ly for four hours, pre­ced­ed by an hour of pre-cool­ing or pre-heat­ing. Par­tic­i­pa­tion is always vol­un­tary, and you can over­ride the set­tings any­time. How­ev­er, the more you par­tic­i­pate, the more you save. Mem­bers who par­tic­i­pate in at least 60% of peak events receive a $100 bill cred­it in the first year and $50 each year after­wards.

Anoth­er way to hold down peak demand is by sign­ing up for Beat the Peak alerts. This vol­un­tary pro­gram noti­fies you when ener­gy demand is expect­ed to be high­est. When you get a peak alert, you can delay using large appli­ances, adjust your ther­mo­stat and turn off unnec­es­sary lights. Even minor changes, such as stag­ger­ing the use of mul­ti­ple devices, can help reduce the demand placed on the grid. That means low­er costs for your co-op and for you.

So, why does demand response mat­ter? While co-ops are invest­ing in emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies, elec­tric­i­ty cur­rent­ly can­not be stored on a large scale. There­fore, bal­anc­ing author­i­ties must gen­er­ate exact­ly what’s need­ed at any giv­en moment. That’s espe­cial­ly impor­tant dur­ing peak hours, when prices from our whole­sale pow­er provider, Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive, increase sig­nif­i­cant­ly. High­er demand rais­es YEC’s oper­at­ing costs, which direct­ly impacts your month­ly bill. By work­ing togeth­er to reduce our col­lec­tive usage dur­ing these key times, we can low­er the amount of ener­gy York Elec­tric must pur­chase at peak rates, keep­ing your pow­er bill afford­able.

We hope you’ve gained a bet­ter under­stand­ing of your place in our pow­er grid and role in main­tain­ing its reli­a­bil­i­ty. Pro­grams such as Beat the Peak and our Smart Ther­mo­stat Pro­gram are tools that empow­er you to make a dif­fer­ence, not just for your pow­er bill, but for your co-op and the net­work of orga­ni­za­tions that deliv­er pow­er to your home. Togeth­er, we can ensure that your co-op con­tin­ues to deliv­er on its promise of safe, afford­able and reli­able pow­er. After all, when we all par­tic­i­pate, every­one ben­e­fits.

To learn more or sign up, vis­it our web­site’s “Save Ener­gy and Mon­ey” sec­tion.