The ideas in this section require greater involvement by the Proactricity Practitioner (you!). The low hanging fruit on the electrical energy conservation tree is bigger, and consequently requires a bigger basket (your participation) to collect.

Background
Each of us can lend a hand toward reducing the number of new fossil fuel (generally coal) power plants that need to be constructed based on the projections of rising demand for power, particularly  power consumed during peak periods, by makingr decisions that shift our demand for electrical energy to the off-peak times of the day (generally evenings and night time). Many utility companies offer "time of day" or "time of use" pricing options to help "shave the peak" or "shift the load" from the peak to the off-peak time of day. Under these schemes, the cost per kilowatthour (Kwhr) during the peak period is relatively high compared to the "standard" or non-time of use pricing, while the cost per Kwhr during the off-peak is relatively low compared to non-time of use pricing. If you wish to simultaneously save money and contribute to an effort that will avoid the need for new power plants, request time-of-day (or Time of Use, "TOU") pricing and then change your behavior to take advantage of this pricing. On Orcas, with some of the least expensive electricity prices in the country, you can save hundreds of dollars a year off your electrical bill by making relatively simple changes in your behavior.


Time of Use Metering

Here is a set of real world calculations showing the potential savings to an existing Opalco customer for using a TOU (Time Of Use) meter.

   
Assumptions:

The user consumes 1000 kwhrs/month.

The user shifts peak period (6am to noon) power to the off peak period at the percentage shown in the column "peak kwhr percent", that is, the total kwhrs consumed during the peak are X% (see the column) of 1000 kwhrs. In the case of the sample data "september 2010", the total kwhrs consumed during the peak period for the month would be 150 kwhrs, as shown in the column "kwhr peak period".

Note that as the user consumes a higher percentage of power during the peak period, the savings decrease. At 40% peak period consumption, there is a negative savings by using a TOU meter.

If you discount the period midnight to 6am, then there are effectively 3 (three) 6 hour periods a day (6am-noon, noon-6pm, 6pm to midnight). If power were being consumed uniformly during these three 6 hour blocks, then one could assume that the peak period block would only consume 33% of the power during the day. It is not difficult to alter electrical consumption behavior patterns to consume about 14-15% of electrical power during the peak period (more on this later). 

So, assuming the TOU meter user does use only 15% of their power during the peak, they save $19.14/month over what they would have paid, which would have been $101.30, so they are saving about 19% on their bill. For the year, that is $229 and change. (The actual total charges (TOU) numbers always round up to an even dollar because the information in the table here assumes the user contributes to Project Pal).

Sample Data Showing Cost Savings by shifting electrical consumption to the off peak period

month	year	total kwhr	peak kwhr percent	TOD savings	kwhr peak period 1	total bill
sep	2010	1000	15	19.135	150	83
aug	2010	1000	20	15.23	200	87
jul	2010	1000	25	11.325	250	90
jan	2010	1000	30	7.42	300	94
feb	2010	1000	35	3.515	350	98
mar	2010	1000	40	-.39	400	102

 

If one assumes that a "normal" user, who did not make any effort to shift power off the peak, would consume 30% of their power during the 6am-noon peak period, then they would have consumed 300 kwhrs/month during this period, or approximately 10 kwhrs/day (assuming a 30 day month). The "peak-shaver" user, at 15% peak use, would use half this power, saving about 5 kwhrs/day during the peak. At even ten cents a kwhr (higher than the current rate in the NW), this is only 50 cents/day saved. Why bother?

For two reasons. First, as shown above, the user does save money, over $200 per year. Second, and this is the quiet but really big point, those 5 kwhrs/household/peakperiod/day add up if there are millions of players. If one million households in a metro area do this, that is 5 million kwhrs that do not have to be generated during the peak. Those reshuffled kwhrs means less need for power plant construction, particularly base load (think coal or nuclear) power plant production. Those reshuffled kwhrs buy time for the country to shift to renewables. 

One coal fired 500 mw power plant produces about 3.3 billion kwhrs/year. One million customers who shift power off peak for a year translates to about a half a power plant. There are well over 100 million households in America. If they all shifted power off peak, that translates to the equivalent of freeing up 50 existing power plants, thus buying time.

Changing Behavior to Achieve Optimum TOU Savings

Any power hungry devices that you don't need to use during the peak period are candidates for saving money. Here are 2 that almost everyone has:

    * An electric water heater

    * Clothes washing with a washer and electric dryer

Water Heater
    A simple, inexpensive 24 hour timer can be installed to turn the power off during the peak. Most water heaters store 50 gallons of hot water, enough for 2 showers in the morning. Set the timer to turn the power off at 6am and on again at noon. The hot water will lose virtually no temperature during this time period. 

    Bottom line: you get your morning shower. You save money by shifting your peak load to the off peak period. The planet doesn't get another coal plant as a result.

Clothes Washing
    The only timer needed is you!

    Just wash and dry clothes in the afternoon. Use this sticker:


Other ways to shift power consumption:

    Don't bake in the morning.

    If you have a hot tub, put a timer on it, setting it the same as for your hot water heater.


Going Further

Most utilities are moving toward greater Demand Side Management (DSM) involvement in controlling the growth of electrical demand. New technologies are emerging which, with the customer's permission, allow the utility to regulate some electrical activity (for example, a hot water tank's temperature) in order to meet overall system demand goals. To get the highest number of points for being a Proactricity Practitioner, learn what DSM options are available to you and implement them. If your utility does not appear to be a Proactricity Practitioner, you can lead them down the yellow brick road!