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REDUCING ENERGY CONSUMPTION AT HOME
has a direct, obvious and positive
effect on your monthly electric bill,
but it also plays an important role in
reducing the need to construct costly
new generation facilities. And
that helps keep everyone's
monthly bill affordable.
From the time the
utility industry was born,
America has experienced
rapid development and
growth, and much of that
progress has been powered
by electricity. In the past, there were
relatively few barriers to keeping up
with consumer demand. Fuel for
electric generation was plentiful and
cheap.
Infrastructure, such as power
generation plants and transmission
lines, were not terribly difficult to
plan. Since building infrastructure and
producing electricity were relatively
cheap and easy, little thought was
given to energy efficiency in the home
or business as a serious part of any
supply solution.
While not widely publicized, the
utility industry's army of engineers
has made dramatic improvements
in the efficiency of their generating
stations and overall operations. From
the plant all the way to the "smart
meter," delivering electricity is a
better, cleaner system than it used
to be. The industry continues to
make improvements, and there are
promising technologies on the horizon.
These changes will have a huge impact
on the supply side, but they won't be
enough to meet demand growth on
their own.
Keeping up with demand is getting
very difficult on the supply side for
a number of reasons. Traditional
fossil fuels are under attack for their
carbon emissions. Nuclear power,
while carbon free, has its own set
of problems. Renewable generation
options are still expensive and have
limited availability during peak
periods, and planning the location
of future transmission facilities to
get that power onto the grid can be
difficult. Something has to give—and
soon—on the supply side.
With such constraints on building
additional infrastructure, it makes
sense to slow the growth of electricity
consumption. The best energy efficiency
programs are designed to
shape usage patterns in a way that
allows utilities to meet consumer
demand while deferring the
construction of new power plants.
In this edition of South Carolina
Living, as in every edition, there are
good, power-saving suggestions for
lowering your monthly electric bill.
(And if you missed last month's issue,
which included the booklet 101 Low-
Cost/No-Cost Home Energy-Saving
Measures for South Carolina, stop by
our office for a copy.)
By managing your energy use, you
are also helping with the supply side
of the equation. We're doing our part
by proposing a federal Rural Energy
Savings Program, which would help
control power bills while opening up
thousands of clean-energy jobs.
Look for other efficiency programs
and incentives provided through
Palmetto Electric Cooperative; we
have experts available to help you save
energy and reduce peak consumption.
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