Writing about events in Washington, D.C. got us thinking about the upcoming state legislative session set to begin down in Montgomery. Here's a link to an article from earlier this month about energy bills that are expected to top the legislature's to-do list.
As the session progresses and we learn more about these proposals, we'll share what we know. In general, any articles we find relating to the future of electric utilities, energy efficiency and what it all means to our members and their monthly bill, we will post on our blog.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
How will changes in D.C. impact your electric bill?
President Obama took office yesterday. Wow...Can you imagine being in that crowd? No matter how you voted in November, there's no denying Tuesday's inauguration was a historic event.
Speaking of history making events, President Obama's proposed energy policy could have an impact on our country for generations to come. There is a heavy emphasis on renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions and lots of other things that, on the surface, are not bad. It's going to cost a lot of money to get it right, but it could be an even bigger expense if things are done the wrong way.
Electric co-ops across the country are working on a campaign called Our Energy, Our Future. The idea behind the grassroots campaign is to have people like you contact your elected officials in Washington D.C. They need to be aware of how decisions they make about our nation's energy policy are going to impact rural America, and they have to know that you want them to keep us in mind when they vote.
At Cullman EC and electric co-ops all over the country, our No. 1 priority is to provide our members with affordable and reliable electricity. Sometimes, we've got to stand up for ourselves and make some noise to make sure folks in D.C. are doing what's best for our members.
That's the whole idea behind the Our Energy, Our Future campaign. Co-ops are not opposed to renewable energy or reducing carbon emissions. What we are opposed to is poorly written laws that set unrealistic mandates and could cause the price of electricity to skyrocket.
The United States needs to make some changes in the way we produce and use electricity, but co-ops want to make sure the need for affordable electricity is not overlooked in the process.
To learn more about the campaign and contact your senator and congressman, visit the Our Energy, Our Future web site.
Speaking of history making events, President Obama's proposed energy policy could have an impact on our country for generations to come. There is a heavy emphasis on renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions and lots of other things that, on the surface, are not bad. It's going to cost a lot of money to get it right, but it could be an even bigger expense if things are done the wrong way.
Electric co-ops across the country are working on a campaign called Our Energy, Our Future. The idea behind the grassroots campaign is to have people like you contact your elected officials in Washington D.C. They need to be aware of how decisions they make about our nation's energy policy are going to impact rural America, and they have to know that you want them to keep us in mind when they vote.
At Cullman EC and electric co-ops all over the country, our No. 1 priority is to provide our members with affordable and reliable electricity. Sometimes, we've got to stand up for ourselves and make some noise to make sure folks in D.C. are doing what's best for our members.
That's the whole idea behind the Our Energy, Our Future campaign. Co-ops are not opposed to renewable energy or reducing carbon emissions. What we are opposed to is poorly written laws that set unrealistic mandates and could cause the price of electricity to skyrocket.
The United States needs to make some changes in the way we produce and use electricity, but co-ops want to make sure the need for affordable electricity is not overlooked in the process.
To learn more about the campaign and contact your senator and congressman, visit the Our Energy, Our Future web site.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Cold weather, outages & "peak demand"
We're not sure what the official low temperature was last night, but several people around the office reported single-digit reading at their home overnight. Tonight won't be much better as the temperature is expected to reach the low- to mid-teens.
The co-op did experience some outages Friday morning, and, yes, the freezing cold weather was the culprit. Approximately 1,800 members experienced power loss. The majority happened between 6:30 and 9:30 in the morning. McDonald's was still serving breakfast by the time our line crews had fixed most of the problems, and were working hard to solve isolated outages in different parts of our service territory.
So, how did the cold weather cause the power to go out? Think of it this way — the power lines can only carry a certain amount of electricity at any given moment. On really, really cold nights, just about everyone have their heater running all night long, which means more electricity is being used than normal. Then, people start to wake up. They turn on lights, take a hot shower, plug in their curling iron and blow dryer, turn on the stove, TV, computer, etc. At the same time, people start going to work — office lights and heaters and computers all kinds of stuff that take electricity get turned on.
When there is more demand for electricity than the power lines can provide, that's when the power goes out. It's the electrical systems way of protecting itself from a major meltdown that could take several days or more to repair. Instead of spreading across the entire system, causing everyone to lose power, only the area that was overloaded goes dark. Although it's a MAJOR inconvenience for people who live there, the isolated outage is easier for line crews to find and fix.
Kyle Baggett, Cullman EC's vice president of engineering & operations, shared this interesting bit of information with us:
"Winter peaks typically occur in the morning hours (7-9 a.m). Most everybody gets up and showers before work during those times and we get hot water heater loads in addition to home heating load. Summer peaks occur in the afternoon (4 to 7 p.m.) — driven by the hottest part of the day and people cooking dinner.
The co-op did experience some outages Friday morning, and, yes, the freezing cold weather was the culprit. Approximately 1,800 members experienced power loss. The majority happened between 6:30 and 9:30 in the morning. McDonald's was still serving breakfast by the time our line crews had fixed most of the problems, and were working hard to solve isolated outages in different parts of our service territory.
So, how did the cold weather cause the power to go out? Think of it this way — the power lines can only carry a certain amount of electricity at any given moment. On really, really cold nights, just about everyone have their heater running all night long, which means more electricity is being used than normal. Then, people start to wake up. They turn on lights, take a hot shower, plug in their curling iron and blow dryer, turn on the stove, TV, computer, etc. At the same time, people start going to work — office lights and heaters and computers all kinds of stuff that take electricity get turned on.
When there is more demand for electricity than the power lines can provide, that's when the power goes out. It's the electrical systems way of protecting itself from a major meltdown that could take several days or more to repair. Instead of spreading across the entire system, causing everyone to lose power, only the area that was overloaded goes dark. Although it's a MAJOR inconvenience for people who live there, the isolated outage is easier for line crews to find and fix.
Kyle Baggett, Cullman EC's vice president of engineering & operations, shared this interesting bit of information with us:
"Winter peaks typically occur in the morning hours (7-9 a.m). Most everybody gets up and showers before work during those times and we get hot water heater loads in addition to home heating load. Summer peaks occur in the afternoon (4 to 7 p.m.) — driven by the hottest part of the day and people cooking dinner.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Welcome to sunny Alaska — formerly known as Alabama
Most of us live in the South because we enjoy the climate. That's a nice way of saying we don't like cold weather.
When it's freezing outside (32 degrees) that means it's too cold. If we enjoyed below freezing weather, we would all live in Chicago.
If we wanted to endure days at a time where the temperature stayed below freezing, we would have moved to Alaska.
Unfortunately, Alaska is coming for a visit this week. Tonight (Wednesday, Jan. 14) the temperature is supposed to drop below 20 degrees. The talking weatherheads on TV have told us it will not rise above 32 degrees until sometime Saturday afternoon. The forecast low for Thursday night is 10 degrees. On Friday night, things will warm up all the way to 15 degrees. The high temperature both days might reach 30.
A cold snap like this can prove to be very costly on your next month's electric bill. Heat pumps are excellent for home heating and cooling here in the South with our warm spring, summer and fall months and our moderate winter. But, when the mercury takes a swan dive, heat pumps have to use strip heating in order operate, and strip heating uses A LOT of electricity.
Our best advice? Turn down the thermostat as low as you can possibly stand it, and bundle up! Wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt or fleece pullover around the house. Curl up in a quilt on the couch. Throw an extra comforter or blanket on the bed. TVA's energy right program recommends setting your thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter. Over the next several nights, your home heating system is going to have to work extra hard to maintain that temperature, so every degree below 68 is money you will save and keep in your pocket.
I knew a young man once who lived in a older home that would get frigid inside on the coldest winter nights. He told me he would sleep in sweats with a warm pair of socks on his feet, two blankets and a wool snow cap pulled down over his ears and eyes, leaving just his mouth and nose uncovered. It wasn't pretty (or so I'm told...) but the electric bill didn't break the bank.
We're not suggesting you put your family through episode of Survivorman inside your own home for the next three days. Just be aware that a hard freeze can be hard on your electric bill, but you can find some relief by dropping your theromstat setting a few degrees.
When it's freezing outside (32 degrees) that means it's too cold. If we enjoyed below freezing weather, we would all live in Chicago.
If we wanted to endure days at a time where the temperature stayed below freezing, we would have moved to Alaska.
Unfortunately, Alaska is coming for a visit this week. Tonight (Wednesday, Jan. 14) the temperature is supposed to drop below 20 degrees. The talking weatherheads on TV have told us it will not rise above 32 degrees until sometime Saturday afternoon. The forecast low for Thursday night is 10 degrees. On Friday night, things will warm up all the way to 15 degrees. The high temperature both days might reach 30.
A cold snap like this can prove to be very costly on your next month's electric bill. Heat pumps are excellent for home heating and cooling here in the South with our warm spring, summer and fall months and our moderate winter. But, when the mercury takes a swan dive, heat pumps have to use strip heating in order operate, and strip heating uses A LOT of electricity.
Our best advice? Turn down the thermostat as low as you can possibly stand it, and bundle up! Wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt or fleece pullover around the house. Curl up in a quilt on the couch. Throw an extra comforter or blanket on the bed. TVA's energy right program recommends setting your thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter. Over the next several nights, your home heating system is going to have to work extra hard to maintain that temperature, so every degree below 68 is money you will save and keep in your pocket.
I knew a young man once who lived in a older home that would get frigid inside on the coldest winter nights. He told me he would sleep in sweats with a warm pair of socks on his feet, two blankets and a wool snow cap pulled down over his ears and eyes, leaving just his mouth and nose uncovered. It wasn't pretty (or so I'm told...) but the electric bill didn't break the bank.
We're not suggesting you put your family through episode of Survivorman inside your own home for the next three days. Just be aware that a hard freeze can be hard on your electric bill, but you can find some relief by dropping your theromstat setting a few degrees.
website update — we promise; we really are working on it!!!
Well, here we are six months later and the fancy new website we were hoping to unveil in October is still not quite ready.
It's close. Very, very close.
Another couple weeks and it should be up and running. In the meantime, we're going to get this blog fired up so by the time people start to find this, it won't look like another good idea gone bad.
Our vision for this blog is, let's say... open to your imagination. We'll use this to give our guests some insight on how and why things happen in the electricity business, and do it in a way that is quick and easy to read AND actually makes sense!!! We'll use it for breaking news during bad weather. We'll use it as a forum to give answers to your questions that might not fit easily inside the pages of Alabama Living. There might be hundreds of topics that eventually are posted here, but we really have no idea what this will be since we're just getting started.
The one things we'll always aim for is to make it interesting. Be sure to set a bookmark and check in on a regular basis.
It's close. Very, very close.
Another couple weeks and it should be up and running. In the meantime, we're going to get this blog fired up so by the time people start to find this, it won't look like another good idea gone bad.
Our vision for this blog is, let's say... open to your imagination. We'll use this to give our guests some insight on how and why things happen in the electricity business, and do it in a way that is quick and easy to read AND actually makes sense!!! We'll use it for breaking news during bad weather. We'll use it as a forum to give answers to your questions that might not fit easily inside the pages of Alabama Living. There might be hundreds of topics that eventually are posted here, but we really have no idea what this will be since we're just getting started.
The one things we'll always aim for is to make it interesting. Be sure to set a bookmark and check in on a regular basis.
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