Monday, Jul. 13, 2009

Despite heat, energy consumption down

S.C. utilities say use is down, even on hottest days

Despite the arrival of summer’s heat, a tanking economy and energy conservation efforts appear to be prompting South Carolinians to trim their appetite for electricity.

The state’s four largest energy providers report sales are either flat or down as much as 2 percent, compared to last summer.

And, with summertime highs predicted to average 2 degrees below normal, no one expects any records to be broken this year on the amount of electricity consumed in a single day.

“It’s safe to say the economy is impacting folks,” said Robert Yanity, spokesman for Columbia-based South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., which serves about 650,000 homes and businesses.

The economy has led to cutbacks in industrial and commercial consumption, spokesmen said. Residential customers also appear to be adopting new power consumption habits.

So far, the typical residential customer is cutting power consumption about 2 percent, SCE&G said. Meanwhile, the average commercial user is cutting back about 1 percent.

For an idea of how much power use is down, state-operated Santee Cooper delivered 4,719 megawatts to customers on July 1, when the temperature hit 99 degrees in Columbia.

That figure pales in comparison to the 5,276 megawatts Santee Cooper customers consumed on Aug. 5 of last year, when the daytime high hit 100 degrees.

A megawatt is roughly enough to power 800 homes.

Temperature is just one of several factors affecting the use of air conditioners, Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore said.

People are likely to keep the air-conditioning dial set higher if extreme heat lasts just a day or two. The longer the heat’s around, the more likely people are to crank up their air conditioning, she said.

Utilities also think consumers are adopting conservation and energy-efficiency programs that the power companies and public agencies have promoted.

For example, over the past year Santee Cooper, based in Moncks Corner, has distributed more than 800,000, energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps and offered a number of energy efficiency programs, Gore said.

“We’d like to think that makes a bit of a difference,” said Gore, whose company serves 163,000 customers in three coastal counties plus an additional 700,000 customers through the state’s 20 electric cooperatives.

Power use also is down because some industrial and commercial customers have laid off workers, reduced work shifts and even shuttered plants and stores.

“The base use, I guess you could say, is not as high” this summer, said Paige Sheehan of Charlotte-based Duke Energy, which has 600,000 customers in the Upstate.

Droughts and high gas prices also appear to be causing consumers to change their power consumption habits, Sheehan said.

Last year, people were trying save money on their electric bills because gasoline hit $4 a gallon, Sheehan said.

And, in 2007, Duke and other power companies asked customers to reduce electricity consumption because of the lengthy drought, which threatened the water supply necessary to generate power, she said.

Couple the habits forged by $4 gas and drought with this year’s recession, and it’s possible all three elements are contributing to a reduction in power consumption, she said.

“For some customers, maybe they didn’t care until now,” Sheehan said. “For other customers, maybe they’ve been doing it all along.”

With consumption down, Sheehan said, Duke expects sales to be flat for the year even though the number of its customers continues to increase.

The companies think reduced consumption is only temporary.

While industrial sales have dropped, “we continue to see growth on the residential side,” said Mike Hughes of Raleigh-based Progress Energy, which serves 200,000 customers in the Pee Dee region.

Reach Crumbo at (803) 771-8503.

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