November 2007 Commentary
Lessons from Benjamin Franklin
Richard G. Biever
Senior Editor
Future energy challenges can be met if we all pitch in
Benjamin Franklin was an electrical experimenter who also created the first successful cooperative business in America. Toss in his pioneering work as a newspaper editor, and it’s easy to see why he’s the favorite of the founding fathers here at Electric Consumer.
We’ve borrowed his “penny saved is a penny earned” saying before when talking about energy conservation: “A megawatt saved is a megawatt unburned,” one that didn’t need generating.
Energy efficiency and conservation once again is the focus of this month’s Electric Consumer. Cutting waste and using less electricity will be an important component in meeting future energy demand. It’s important to our environment. It’s important to our national security by lessening our dependence on the world’s volatile natural gas supply.
We’re facing a challenging energy future. Projected electricity demand will soon rise way beyond the current ability of all power companies to produce it. Global competition for fossil fuels is making energy costs climb worldwide. Environmental concerns over carbon casts a cloud over all fossil fueled-electricity. The inefficiencies and inability of renewables to meet baseload demand for the foreseeable future will also add to energy costs and concerns. These are major problems at the power supply end of the electric grid.
Meanwhile, we as consumers can continue working on our end of the line by conserving and cutting waste. In addition, we need to use energy more wisely. We don’t always do that.
Consumers use large amounts of electricity in the morning when we get ready for work and school. We use large amounts again in the late afternoon when we all come home. We use much less electricity in the evening and at night.
Electricity can’t be stored. So, power suppliers must build costly generating capacity or purchase power to meet that peak demand. The peak consumers set is also factored into the amount electric co-ops pay their power supplier. That’s in addition to the actual kilowatt-hours their members use.
Ideally, demand would graph as a fairly straight line over the course of the day. But that’s not how most people live and use electricity. We cycle between steep peaks and deep valleys. But we can help mitigate them.
We can help our co-op keep electric rates more stable by shifting some of our demand to the evening. If we can wait till after 8 p.m. to run the dryer, dishwasher or other major appliances, we can help shave that peak. Contact your REMC or REC for more ways you can shift some load to off-peak hours.
To meet future energy needs, the electric industry must develop new clean technologies and add more nuclear and renewable forms of energy. But these will take time and money. Conservation and wiser use of electricity are immediate no-cost, low-cost things we as member/owners can do today to help our own pocket books, our co-op, our nation and our environment.
We need to be smarter about electricity and end our wasteful ways. Doing so will give us, our children, our grandchildren and our nation a cleaner, brighter and more secure future. Doing so, as noted in past issues of Electric Consumer — and to paraphrase another Franklin proverb — will make us all “more healthy, wealthy and energy wise.”
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 10/29/2007
Number of Views: 225
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