What is Grid Capacity?

Most people don’t think about grid capacity, demand or what it takes to generate and deliver the electrons that power their lives. People just want to be sure that when they flip the light switch, the lights come on. But the reality is that when and how you use electricity is very important and has financial impacts to your Cooperative. Electricity that is delivered to your home must be generated at the same exact time you’re using it. If you are a regular reader of my monthly columns, you have surely read articles addressing the concept of demand over the past few years.

To meet the second-by-second demands that our members have for electricity, the Co-op must ensure the grid is built with enough capacity to handle the demand on the system. If there isn’t enough capacity, you will have power quality issues, such as low voltage in your home. The Co-op would experience an increased failure rate and loss of efficiency of our equipment.

Generally, a population of people are all awake and using electricity at the same time. Whether you’re getting ready for work, preparing meals or relaxing in front of the TV. Chances are, most of your neighbors are doing the same or similar things. This means that during certain times of the day, people are using more electricity than at other times. If our grid capacity is not sufficient to meet everyone’s needs, those lights won’t work.

You might ask, how much capacity on the grid do I need to power my life? The capacity is measured by demand, which is the maximum amount of instantaneous power you require at one time. This value is reset to zero each billing period. If someone uses a lot of energy in a short period of time, they require a higher amount of grid capacity to allow the electrons to flow to their home.

To help our members better understand how their usage contributes to Union County Electric’s grid capacity, we will begin by displaying your share of the grid capacity on the monthly bill. The higher the grid capacity value, the more cost there is associated with providing service to your home, farm or business. There will be no charge associated with grid capacity at this time. We are doing this to help educate our membership of how their usage contributes to the overall capacity of the Cooperative.

The good news is that you have some control over the grid capacity that you require. Simply by being conscious of when and how you use electricity, you can lower this value. For example, if you come home from work, turn on the oven and throw a load of laundry in at the same time, you will require enough capacity to handle both tasks. However, if you turn on the oven and an hour later do your laundry, you require less capacity, as you do not need to power both appliances simultaneously.

Knowledge is powerful. Our goal is to provide our members with the knowledge that they need to adjust their usage patterns if they choose. Rather than using less energy in a month, let’s focus on using our energy resources more wisely over the coming year.

Until next month, stay safe and God bless. 

Quote of the Month: “Look to the future, because that is where you'll spend the rest of your life” – George Burns, Actor