Electric Co-op Today

The first cold snap of 2012 swept out of the Central Plains last week, and forced electric cooperatives in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Deep South to ask consumer-members to conserve energy.

Recently sown rye grass in Jeff Szymanski’s front yard was coated with ice after he left his sprinkler on during a Jan. 3 cold snap in Hubert, N.C. (AP Photo/The Daily News, Don Bryan)

Others prepositioned staff and equipment to handle potential problems and quickly restore service in anticipation of potential outages.

“We have a cold weather plan we activate whenever temperatures are projected to drop below 30 degrees,” said Barry Bowman, director of corporate communications for Sumter Electric Cooperative.

The Sumterville, Fla.-based cooperative was one of several in the Sunshine State where consumer-members cranked up their thermostats Jan. 3-4, as temperatures dipped below freezing in some areas.

“We have a lot of electric heat in this area,” Bowman said. “In some areas of our service territory, many consumer-members live in manufactured housing and rely heavily upon electric heating.”

The cold weather threat prompted Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative to send automated telephone messages to its more than 42,000 consumer-members and metered account holders, Jan. 3.

Officials at the DeFuniak Springs, Fla.-based co-op have been working since 2009 to reduce peak demand in both extremely hot and very cold weather, as a means of holding down its wholesale power costs.

“We are asking you to voluntarily conserve energy between the hours of 6:00 and 8:30 a.m.,” said the automated message. “This will help reduce what CHELCO pays for wholesale power in the coming year.”

Choptank Electric Cooperative, headquartered in Denton, Md., and Greenwood, Dela.-based Delaware Electric Cooperative both invoked their “Beat the Peak” programs Jan. 3-4. Frigid temperatures on the Delmarva Peninsula prompted the co-ops to discourage unnecessary usage between the hours of 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., and 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. to reduce peak demand.

The weather system may have contributed to scattered outages elsewhere across the nation, spawning high winds in some areas and lake effect snow near the Great Lakes.

In Michigan, Midwest Energy Cooperative crews spent Jan. 1 working to restore service to 2,800 consumer-members after two of the Cassopolis-based co-op’s substations were affected by a transmission line outage.

“This is a tough way to start the new year, but obviously, Mother Nature operates on her own schedule,” said Mike Roush, the co-op’s vice president of operations.

In South Carolina, Horry Electric Cooperative crews were busy Jan. 4, restoring power to nearly 500 of the co-op’s consumer-members.

“We had a blown fuse that temporarily knocked out a primary line,” said Penelope Hinson, manager of public relations, marketing and energy management for the Conway-based co-op. “It was repaired in 30 minutes.”

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Tags: Load Demand, Power Outages, Response, Weather Effects