The heat rolled into July and settled in to create some of the warmest weather in recent memory. The high temperatures help set a new electric demand record at OPU. We reached an all-time high on July 19th when our demand peaked at 74.64 megawatts beating out the previous record of 74.62 set back in July of 2006. You know it’s hot out when discussions of extreme heat indexes over 100 degrees top the local news. As people, we can only tolerate being uncomfortable for so long before we find ways to cool off. For many people it’s turning the air conditioning temperature down or starting up a few fans to be more comfortable. When this occurs, OPU puts many different measures into action to assure we can meet higher electric demand and hold down costs.
Often times during a high demand period we will do a PEAK ALERT to signal all of our customers to hold down electric consumption until after 8:00 p.m. We issue these by contacting radio stations and sending out e-mails to customers. The last go-around of peak alerts lasted three consecutive days this past July when temperatures soared and heat indexes increased each day. We called on some of our larger commercial customers to lower their electric demand during the hottest part of the record hot days and it was a big help. Additionally, we initiated our load management program where we sent out a signal to over 6,000 air conditioners and interrupted their operation for 15 minutes prior to the top of the hour to lower demand and costs. In return customers receive a 5% credit on their commodity charge year-round which is equal to roughly $50.00 per year. With the help of many people who turned off extra lights, pulled shades and drapes, turned up their air conditioners, waited until after 8:00 pm to wash laundry or run the dishwasher in the evening all helped lower our peak demand.
Along with the extreme temperatures we had our share of storms. Fortunately, our electric distribution system is capable of meeting the high demand. Our system is also robust with redundancies that minimize outage time when we take a lighting hit or a fallen tree limb on one of our power lines. Our employees do an excellent job responding to restore power quickly or redirect as necessary through other circuits. It’s times like this that we appreciate the tree trimming maintenance we conduct throughout the year to keep power lines clear.
The rain has hampered some of our construction projects that would have been further along. One of those is the # 2 well elevation project down in Morehouse Park. The project will raise the wellhead 2-3 ft above the 100 year flood level and out of harms way during flooding.
Finally, the search is underway to find our next General Manager. Mike Bruno will be retiring at the end of October after 18 years at OPU. Resumes have been coming in steady for the last month and the last day we accepted applications was July 29th. The commission will be reviewing resumes, selecting potential candidates and conducting interviews sometime around the end of August. It is anticipated the new General Manager will be on board sometime the first week in October.