On March 2, Saint John Energy called on their customers to assist in reducing peak energy consumption in their own homes. The call to action resulted in a 14-megawatt reduction with savings of $210,000.
Saint John Energy sent out a notification to their customers asking them to try to reduce their energy consumption during peak energy times that morning. As a result, they found a significant reduction in cost and energy consumption.
“By helping us reduce the peak, it helps us to continue with the activities that help us to keep our costs low for our customers,” said Chloe Murphy, a communications specialist with Saint John Energy.
Saint John Energy has a number of initiatives that have helped reduce peak energy including the use of a Tesla Megapack battery to store energy to be used during peak hours, a partnership with Stash Energy that helps store heat energy, and a partnership with Saint John Water that allows them to tap into their generators during peak hours. March 2 was the first time they have called upon their customers to contribute to the reduction.
“We deploy lots of different measures as a utility, but if customers collectively make a few small changes, it can have a massive impact overall,” said Murphy.
Some actions customers took included turning down thermostats by a couple of degrees or delaying to put on a wash load by a couple of hours to avoid peak times.
Each month, the utility pays a standard energy rate and a peak energy rate. The peak energy rate works out to $14.64 per kW for the maximum kW reading each month, or more than $25 million a year. The higher the monthly peak demand, the more the utility pays.
Peak energy reduction is helpful in lowering costs, but it is also beneficial to helping the environment.
“It’s very costly in terms of the environmental impact,” said Murphy. “During the peak, we tend to see almost double the CO2 emissions due to the fact that we have to use fossil fuels to be able to produce enough energy for the peak.”
Peak hours are typically between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. When more energy is being used, it is generated from more sources including fossil fuel.
Peak demand charges are more than $3 million a month in Saint John and are among the highest in the country.
As Saint John Energy continues to develop its smart grid, it hopes to find more solutions for automating the reduction of peak energy use. But for now, Murphy says they will continue with their initiative and calling the attention of customers to the issue of peak energy demand.
“During the summer, we don’t tend to experience peaks in the same way that we do in the winter, but certainly when we’re going back into the winter, we will be doing this again,” said Murphy. “At the moment, the key thing for us as a utility is to educate our customers and community on peak energy and the impact that has.”
Liam Floyd is a reporter for Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.