Wake Electric Thanks Members for Conserving Power During Last Week’s Heat Wave

Last week’s extreme heat wave put the electric grid to the test with recorded high temperatures across the state. Thanks to the efforts of our members, Wake Electric passed that test and kept the grid stable.

“We’re thankful to our members who stepped up during last week’s heat wave,” said Jim Mangum, Wake Electric CEO and General Manager. “Those small efforts of turning the thermostat up a few degrees or waiting to run major appliances helped lighten the load on the grid during a critical time. It’s a powerful reminder of what can be accomplished when our membership works together.”

Usage is always expected to be higher in the summer, but when you add in a heat wave, that burden on the electric grid becomes even greater. Paired with the fact that people tend to use energy around the same time, this creates what we call a “peak.” Most of the time, the system handles these peaks without issue. But when temperatures hit extreme levels and nearly everyone is running their air conditioning at once, demand can spike beyond what’s typical. That kind of strain pushes the grid close to its limits. If it goes too far, utilities may have to take steps like short-term planned outages to keep the system stable and avoid larger disruptions.

In the event our cooperative asks our membership for conservation efforts, it often originates from our wholesale power providers, such as Duke Energy, who anticipate high usage and are concerned with energy generation keeping up. Duke Energy reported a record-breaking high summer usage among its customers during last week’s heat wave. Thanks to the actions of our members, Wake Electric didn’t see that same trend in our usage. The cooperative’s usage remained well within the normal range for summer peaks and remained well below our highest recorded summer usage. We can attribute these numbers to members stepping up with their energy conservation, which helped us avoid contributing to the broader statewide strain on the grid.

A key part of last week’s success is also thanks to our members who are enrolled in our time of use rate. These members are already in the habit of shifting their energy use to off-peak hours when demand is lower. Their rate encourages the behavior of shifting the majority of their energy use off-peak, helping ease demand on the grid and rewarding their efforts with savings. Their consistent energy management helps support a healthy grid during normal conditions and becomes even more crucial during events like last week’s heat wave. We’d encourage members who didn’t find last week’s conservation efforts to be difficult to explore this special rate and see how they could be rewarded when they consistently shift usage to off-peak times.

The actions of one individual household or business may feel small, but multiplied across our membership, they make a big impact. As a member-owned cooperative, what you do at home to protect the grid matters for you and also for your neighbors. We always hope not to have to issue these conservation warnings, but in a time when temperatures continue to rise to historic highs, we take comfort in knowing our membership can be relied upon.