How Extreme Winter Weather Impacts Reliability

By Mau­ra Giles

When out­door tem­per­a­tures drop, our elec­tric­i­ty use increas­es. That’s because we’re doing more activ­i­ties inside, and our heat­ing sys­tems are run­ning longer and more often to coun­ter­act cold­er out­door tem­per­a­tures. Fac­tor in that we all tend to use elec­tric­i­ty at the same times—in the morn­ing and ear­ly evenings—and that equals a lot of strain on our elec­tric grid.

At Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive (CEC), we work close­ly with our local gen­er­a­tion and trans­mis­sion (G&T) coop­er­a­tive in resource and infra­struc­ture plan­ning to ensure you have the pow­er you need when­ev­er you flip a switch, but the elec­tric grid is much larg­er than your local co-op and G&T.

In win­ter months, when even more elec­tric­i­ty is being used simul­ta­ne­ous­ly across the coun­try, it is pos­si­ble for elec­tric­i­ty demand to exceed sup­ply, espe­cial­ly if an unex­pect­ed event like a sud­den snow or ice storm or equip­ment mal­func­tion occurs. If this hap­pens, which is rare, the grid oper­a­tor for our region of the coun­try may call for rolling pow­er out­ages to relieve pres­sure on the grid, and CEC will inform you about the sit­u­a­tion.

CEC and our G&T take proac­tive steps to cre­ate a resilient por­tion of the grid and ensure elec­tric reli­a­bil­i­ty in extreme weath­er, includ­ing reg­u­lar sys­tem main­te­nance, grid mod­ern­iza­tion efforts and dis­as­ter response plan­ning; but it takes every­one to keep the grid reli­able.

To help keep the heat on for you, your fam­i­ly and neigh­bors, here are a few things you can do to relieve pres­sure on the grid (and save a lit­tle mon­ey along the way):

• Select the low­est com­fort­able ther­mo­stat set­ting and turn it down sev­er­al degrees when­ev­er pos­si­ble. Your heat­ing sys­tem must run longer to make up the dif­fer­ence between the ther­mo­stat temp and the out­door temp.
  • Pro tip: Seal air leaks around win­dows and exte­ri­or doors with caulk and weath­er­strip­ping. Air leaks and drafts force your heat­ing sys­tem to work hard­er than nec­es­sary.
• Stag­ger your use of major appli­ances such as dish­wash­ers, ovens and dry­ers.
  • Pro tip: Start the dish­wash­er before you go to bed and use small­er coun­ter­top appli­ances like slow cook­ers and air fry­ers to save ener­gy.
• Ensure that your heat­ing sys­tem is opti­mized for effi­cien­cy with reg­u­lar main­te­nance and prop­er insu­la­tion.
  • Pro tip: Make sure your fur­nace fil­ter isn’t clogged and dirty. Replace it as need­ed.
• When pos­si­ble, use cold water to reduce water heat­ing costs.
  • Pro tip: Set­ting your water heater ther­mo­stat to 120 degrees can help you save ener­gy and reduce min­er­al buildup and cor­ro­sion in your water heater and pipes.
• Unplug devices when not in use to elim­i­nate unnec­es­sary ener­gy use. Even when turned off, elec­tron­ics in stand­by mode con­sume ener­gy.
  • Pro tip: Plug devices into a pow­er strip so you can turn them all off at once with the push of a but­ton.

As we face the chal­lenges posed by win­ter weath­er, under­stand­ing its impact on ener­gy demand is cru­cial for main­tain­ing a reli­able pow­er sup­ply. By adopt­ing ener­gy con­ser­va­tion prac­tices dur­ing peri­ods of extreme cold, not only can you save mon­ey on your elec­tric bills, but you can also each con­tribute to the resilience of the pow­er grid, keep­ing our local com­mu­ni­ty warm and con­nect­ed.