Electricity Demand Peak

What is a Power Cost Adjustment (PCA)?

Sedgwick County Electric Cooperative purchases power each month from its power supplier – Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, Inc. (KEPCo) at a wholesale cost to meet the electric energy needs of its members. This cost of wholesale power is a significant cost of providing electric service to the member.

The PCA provides for a monthly adjustment dependent on any differences in the average cost from the base cost of wholesale power.

When the kilowatt hour cost to the cooperative is lower than the base cost, there is a credit to the bill. When the kilowatt hour cost to the cooperative is higher than the base cost, there is an increase to the bill.

Wholesale power costs fluctuate for a host of reasons. In the hot summer months, the excess demand for energy requires KEPCo to purchase power from more expensive sources, which includes additional generation costs.

Members can help the cooperative and in turn, themselves by curtailing their usage during the peak hours of the hot days of summer (approx. 3-6 p.m.)

What is Peak Alert?

Our members may hear from time to time our “PEAK ALERT” announcements on various radio stations, email notification or Facebook and Twitter notifications. Peak Alerts are not a notice of a power shortage, they are simply a load management effort used to reduce the demand for electricity and keep your cost of power as low as possible. By keeping high electrical demand levels to a minimum, our cooperative members capture the benefit, in the form of a lower cost of power.

Peak Alerts are likely to occur Monday – Friday from 3-6 p.m. on days that are extremely hot and humid. When you experience those severely extreme weather days, find small ways to lower your electricity such as:

• Raise your thermostat by just a few degrees in the summer.
• Turn off lights and appliances you aren’t using.
• Avoid using major appliances, such as dishwasher, washer and dryer from 3:00 – 6:00pm.
• Use outdoor grill to keep cooking heat outside.

By working together and using energy wisely will help to keep our costs down and the electric rates stable.

What are Irrigation Load Levelers?

In an effort to keep down our peak demand and the associated cost of power purchases, we ask consumer-members to sign your irrigation service up for our Load Control Program.  Irrigation units with the LCT's stalled may have service controlled from the office only when we deem it necessary.  LCT’s may be controlled from 3-6 p.m., June 1^st thru September 30th.  The cooperative will notify the member at least 4 hrs. in advance of the time being controlled.