This is the first week that the Concord Municipal Light Plant (CMLP)
used its email notification system to ask Concord electric users to
reduce usage of power for certain short periods of time in anticipation
of decreasing the "summer peak hour". Concord Blog readers know that
the way the system works, that a portion of our electric rate is
related to the demand during that magical "peak hour" (see here for more info). CMLP asked us to reduce our usage between 2 and 5 PM this past Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's request came with two days notification; Thursday notification came that morning. Yesterday, we received the below from CMLP. It refers to the chart at top (click on it to see it in larger form). Good Afternoon,
We thought you might be interested in feedback on what impact the CMLP-CAP Group had on peak demands this week. The graph below shows the hourly demands from 10AM - 10PM each day through yesterday.
You'll recall the power outage we had last Tuesday around 2:30 pm in the West Concord area which is evidenced by the resultant dip in demand as shown on the graph. We are working on better ways to reduce load!
On Monday (blue line) we did not request that customers reduce peak energy use but we did on Wednesday and Thursday and thus a load comparison can be made between them. While there are many variables involved (temperature, humidity, business operations, vacations etc.) the biggest variable, outside temperature, was fairly consistently in the low to mid 80s all week.
So it's interesting to note that on Wednesday we were able to stay below the Monday peak. Thursday we did not do as well but there were probably other factors impacting the outcome. As more and more folks participate the impact should be more noticeable.
We plan on offering these comparisons from time to time and hope you find them of interest. Thanks again for participating and have a great weekend.
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