Putting You First – Fighting to keep the lights on

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, demand for electricity nationally will increase by 40% during the next 22 years–even with an optimistic projection of a 9% reduction in electricity use due to increased efficiency factored in. As the economy expands, the need for power grows right along with it. Nearly every respected analysis, however, finds that our country is running out of power. And as a result, there’s a good chance consumers could experience brownouts and even rolling blackouts in the not-too-distant future if we don’t act soon.

A recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a Princeton, N.J.-based non-profit organization charged with monitoring America’s power system reliability, confirms that unless more resources come on-line, it will not be long before the need for power can no longer be met.

The predictions made by NERC shed light on the urgent need to bolster our nation’s power grid. It is no longer a question of if, but when, we need to build – the need is real, and the time is now.

For electric co-ops, experiencing 2.6% overall load growth (twice the national average), we take our responsibility of maintaining a safe, reliable, and efficient supply of power seriously. We are working hard to implement a strategy that meets your needs with the right mix of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and new technologies for electricity generation involving clean coal, nuclear, and natural gas.

Electric co-ops are recognized industry leaders in promoting energy efficiency and wise energy use. We provide financial incentives–such as low-interest loans for household improvements and include interactive energy use calculators on our website. We offer efficiency and weatherization services, including rebates on high-efficiency lighting systems, electric water heaters, geothermal and air-source heat pumps, and provide free energy audits with blower door tests. Simply put, the more we can do to conserve electricity and use it efficiently means fewer power plants must be built in the future. 

Renewable energy, like wind and solar power, holds great promise in providing electricity. Consumer-owned electric co-ops have blazed trails when it comes to developing renewables. Today, more than 80 % of the nation’s 900-plus electric co-ops supply electricity produced by wind, solar, hydro, and other “green power” sources.

But renewables have some limits.  Wind, for example, which has the potential to meet 20% of the country’s electricity needs, must overcome two main hurdles:  construction of additional high-voltage transmission lines to bring generation produced at wind farms, usually located in remote rural areas, to population centers; and “intermittency”. The fact that wind only blows 30 to 40% of the time, and generally not during times of peak electricity use on hot, humid summer weekday afternoons.  Electric co-ops are heavily involved in research needed to develop better batteries to store wind and solar energy, a breakthrough that will allow these resources to become full-time sources of electricity.  Additional work must take place before these batteries can become viable.

All of these changes will help meet our growing demand for electricity.  Yet at the end of the day, electric co-ops also need to plan for the future–which means building new power plants. Unfortunately, power plant construction costs have skyrocketed in recent years as international demand for coal and materials like steel and concrete continues to climb. 

Presently, 50% of the nation’s electricity supply and 62% of electric co-op power requirements come from coal. Despite rising costs, power plants built in the near-term will burn coal more cleanly and efficiently than ever before. Even more encouraging, concerns over coal’s contribution to climate change could be alleviated within a decade if power plants that capture carbon dioxide gas before it goes up a smokestack, compress it, and then pump it deep underground for permanent storage become available–a real possibility if Congress provides sufficient funding for the necessary research and development.

Nuclear energy also remains part of the solution, even though only a handful of nuclear power plants have come online in this country over the past 20 years, and none have been ordered since the 1970s. Nuclear power–which emits only clean water vapor–generates 20% of all electricity in the U.S. and about 15% of electric co-op power needs. Estimates hold that it will take 10 years to bring a single nuclear reactor online. 
 
Providing more electricity and dealing with climate change are important challenges our country faces. Our commitment to you, as we strive to keep the lights on, will be encouraging lawmakers and regulators to seek out practical, long-term remedies to our nation’s energy problems based on new technology–solutions that will allow us to continue providing safe, reliable, and efficient power in an environmentally responsible fashion.
 
Electric co-ops have no magic bullet to offer – only our hard work and a commitment to your best interests. But as we have done for more than seven decades, we will continue to put you, our members, first.

Source:  U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Energy Information Administration, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.