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Your Energy
Usage Impacts Your Rate Did you know that your energy usage this year will have an impact on your 2009 electric rates? It does, and using electricity wisely will help reduce the bill that Farmers' Electric has to pay for purchased power, which will help keep your rates lower. Our purchased power bill has two components, energy and demand. The energy charge is simply a cost for the kWh that we purchased in the month. The demand portion is the based on the peak demand - the maximum KW that was set by our system. One part of the demand is a 12-month average of the highest demands set each month during the preceding September - August timeframe. The other part is a peak demand, which is an average of the three highest demand days set in July-August, and the three highest demand days set in December-February. The lower we can keep these demands, the less our cost of purchased power will be for 2009. As we head into July and August, we need your help in lowering these three seasonal peaks that we will set. We normally set our summer peak between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. This is when people get home from work, turn on the air conditioning, cook dinner, etc. Any reduction in electric usage during this time will help reduce our demand. The higher our demand is during that specific time period, the more it will cost to generate the needed electricity. The added generation cost is due to Associated Electric having to start up their “peaking plants” to meet the increased demand on the system. These plants can be started up quickly so that the electric power will be there when you need it, but they are very expensive to operate in comparison to the base load coal and hydro plants. Methods of reducing this peak are to set your thermostat a few degrees higher on your air conditioner, use ceiling fans or portable fans to circulate the air and make you feel cooler instead of running the air conditioner, minimize your usage of hot water to keep the water heater from coming on, caulk around all windows and doors to keep the hot air outside, and don't use any lights or appliances that aren't necessary during the 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. time-frame. We will issue "Peak Alerts" on local radio stations during the hottest days this summer to notify you that the current weather conditions could cause us to set a high peak demand. Please reduce your electric usage as much as possible on days that you hear these notifications. Thank you for your help and cooperation on this matter. |
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