By Dale Cronin, Assistant Superintendent, CMLP
The Concord Municipal Light Plant has not sent out any "peak hour" notices for the past several weeks (the ones sent our were published both on this blog and distributed via a Google Groups list). Unless we receive some sustained and unseasonably warm weather soon, it would appear the "peak hour" has come and gone for this summer.
Our last notice was a reminder sent out on the morning of August 18th indicating the peak hour might occur that afternoon. In fact it did during the hour starting at 1 PM, ending at 2 PM. New England achieved a peak of 25,059,000 kilowatts while Concord peaked at 41,497 during that same hour. Our all time peak of 44,898 kilowatts occurred on August 2, 2006 between 1 PM and 2 PM.
Early on we said we would try and quantify the results of the Google notification effort after the summer had passed. Given it appears we are there, and knowing how difficult it is to quantify your fine efforts -- given there is not a legitimate benchmark for comparison as no two days weather-wise and no two days of electrical loads are ever the same -- we offer the following charts for your consideration (click on the graphs to see either of them in a larger format).
The above graph depicts the five days during the week that the peak occurred. The peak happened on Tuesday (yellow line) and we sent out notices for Monday (brown line) and Tuesday. The notice requested that customers reduce electrical use between 1PM and 4PM. Notice how the electric demand tapered off around 1PM on Monday and Tuesday but not on Wednesday through Friday. We believe that downward trend is the direct result of your efforts to curtail use.
In the second graph (directly above), the vertical arrow shows the change in the increasing electrical use trend commences just before 1PM or the time of the requested curtailment while the second arrow estimates the direction the load might have taken without your participation.
It seems clear from the graphs that something influenced Concord's electrical load just before 1PM on both Monday and Tuesday, when notifications were sent out, but not Wednesday through Friday, when notifications were not sent out. We believe it was you folks who choose to reduce your loads when we asked you to.
While it is clear that quantifying the actual kilowatt reduction is extremely difficult, it would appear our actual demand would have been higher. The exact reduction would be a guess, but understanding we have attained a demand as high as 44,898 kilowatts, an estimated reduction of 500 - 1,000 kilowatts would not seem unreasonable. In terms of our Forward Capacity payment to the ISO, the annual savings to the town could be as much as $60,000.
Concord Light would like to thank you all for participating in the Google program aimed at reducing electrical use during the annual peak hour. We believe the program this year was a great start and we hope, with your support, to continue and expand participation next summer.
The Concord Municipal Light Plant has not sent out any "peak hour" notices for the past several weeks (the ones sent our were published both on this blog and distributed via a Google Groups list). Unless we receive some sustained and unseasonably warm weather soon, it would appear the "peak hour" has come and gone for this summer. Our last notice was a reminder sent out on the morning of August 18th indicating the peak hour might occur that afternoon. In fact it did during the hour starting at 1 PM, ending at 2 PM. New England achieved a peak of 25,059,000 kilowatts while Concord peaked at 41,497 during that same hour. Our all time peak of 44,898 kilowatts occurred on August 2, 2006 between 1 PM and 2 PM.
Early on we said we would try and quantify the results of the Google notification effort after the summer had passed. Given it appears we are there, and knowing how difficult it is to quantify your fine efforts -- given there is not a legitimate benchmark for comparison as no two days weather-wise and no two days of electrical loads are ever the same -- we offer the following charts for your consideration (click on the graphs to see either of them in a larger format).
The above graph depicts the five days during the week that the peak occurred. The peak happened on Tuesday (yellow line) and we sent out notices for Monday (brown line) and Tuesday. The notice requested that customers reduce electrical use between 1PM and 4PM. Notice how the electric demand tapered off around 1PM on Monday and Tuesday but not on Wednesday through Friday. We believe that downward trend is the direct result of your efforts to curtail use. In the second graph (directly above), the vertical arrow shows the change in the increasing electrical use trend commences just before 1PM or the time of the requested curtailment while the second arrow estimates the direction the load might have taken without your participation. It seems clear from the graphs that something influenced Concord's electrical load just before 1PM on both Monday and Tuesday, when notifications were sent out, but not Wednesday through Friday, when notifications were not sent out. We believe it was you folks who choose to reduce your loads when we asked you to.
While it is clear that quantifying the actual kilowatt reduction is extremely difficult, it would appear our actual demand would have been higher. The exact reduction would be a guess, but understanding we have attained a demand as high as 44,898 kilowatts, an estimated reduction of 500 - 1,000 kilowatts would not seem unreasonable. In terms of our Forward Capacity payment to the ISO, the annual savings to the town could be as much as $60,000.
Concord Light would like to thank you all for participating in the Google program aimed at reducing electrical use during the annual peak hour. We believe the program this year was a great start and we hope, with your support, to continue and expand participation next summer.
