Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, Manassas, is celebrating 30 years of saving energy.
During the 1970s, the cooperative implemented the Load Management Program to hold down power costs for its customers on high owner-use days year-round.
With every-increasing energy needs and costs, and to celebrate the three decades of saving energy, the company is campaigning for more customers to join the 43,000 already enrolled in the program.
NOVEC pays an annual charge based on the average amount of power used during the five highest-use hours from the previous year, usually between 2 and 6 p.m. on the hottest days in the summer.
This charge gets passed along to customer-owners. Reducing electricity use during these peak hours reduces NOVEC’s — and all customers’ — bills all year long.
When customers reduce their electricity use, NOVEC reduces its total wholesale power costs and passes those savings to customers each month. The average cost per customer for the 2009 peak demand charge is $335, said Ken Blaylock, manager of NOVEC’s substations and telecommunications department.
“By shaving use just 10 percent, NOVEC customers could realize a collective saving of about $4.7 million,” he said.
Blaylock said the local management program has saved the co-op and its customers more than $40 million over the last 30 years.
Under the program, NOVEC installs on a customer’s electric water heater a switch the co-op can use remotely to turn off the heater for about two hours a day when power use soars. An insulated water heater will hold most of its heat during this short period.
If a customer participates in the air conditioner program, NOVEC will install a switch it can use to turn off the compressor for 10 minutes out of every half-hour during peak periods.
For more information call 703-335-0500 or visit www.novec.com/loadmanagement12.
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