Managing Electricity Usage

In New York State’s grid, the consumption of electricity continues to rise. However, one thing is not rising and it is the peak load. The peak load is the hour in which the highest amount of electricity is used throughout the whole year. Last month the use of electricity was 7.8 percent higher then in August 2006 but the peak load was lower. The main cause of this is demand-side management. This management involves the system controllers in Albany to send notifications out to participants a day before to prepare for an upcoming day such as a heat surge when electricity use is great. They can then do little things to save energy such using natural sunlight during the afternoon and also things such as closing the laundry room in apartment buildings. Some companies are even paid for recruiting buildings or tenants to participate such as Cutone & Company Consultants. Trinity Real Estate even had people go to door to door to tell tenants to turn off unnecessary equipment. Tenants are not bothered by this but are rather glad that they’re doing this because they want to continue their business. This management of electricity will give them a better chance of not having a blackout and disrupting their business for hours. Not only does this give benefits to tenants but also energy companies. With it energy companies can keep from building new power plants. Demand- side management also can decrease the cost of electricity because it will decrease the demand for electricity and therefore decreasing the price for people.

This article relates to science because it involves the use of resources. By saving electricity for an upcoming day, New York State is also decreasing the demand of electricity, which will help decrease the use of resources such as oil and gas.

We should be informed about this because Global Warming is going to have a big impact on our lives if we don’t do something about it. This demand-side management strategy may help slow it down. Also, there is a great chance that this strategy will spread to other cities in the United States and even to other countries. And we might even start using it in our own towns.

Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/nyregion/13peak.html?_r=2&ref=science