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South Jordan – Utah’s growing population puts pressure on energy demands, which means everyone must do their part to conserve, Lieutenant Governor Gary Herbert said at the June 5 official start of the PowerForward electricity conservation campaign. This year’s kickoff was held inside a Rainey Homes Energy Star home in Kennecott Land’s Daybreak community.
“Our population is growing at a record pace,” Herbert said. “Everything we do should be to find ways to be more efficient in our energy. Utah is a leader in energy efficiency, with the Governor setting a goal of increasing energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2015 – five years earlier than the Western Governor’s Association goal.”
PowerForward is helping meet that goal, noted Rick Sprott, executive director of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). “Last year we were getting 100 megawatts of power savings off the peak – that’s enough to power 50,000 homes and reduce pollution, too.”
Now in its seventh year, PowerForward is a public and private partnership sponsored by DEQ and Utah’s electric utilities. Its mission is to promote an ethic of energy conservation and efficient use of electricity in Utah homes, businesses, and state-owed buildings. Last spring, Governor Jon Huntsman signed an executive order directing all state employees to heed PowerForward e-mail alerts that signal the need to conserve electricity and require DEQ to prepare an annual report on each agency’s efforts to conserve.
PowerForward uses a color-coded alert system to alert consumers through e-mail messages, news media announcements and Web site postings about the need for energy conservation usually when the temperatures and market prices for electricity run high. Green means normal conservation. A yellow or red warning asks people to take extra measures to reduce power during the hours of peak use, between noon and 8 p.m.
What that means, noted Carol Hunter, vice president of Rocky Mountain Power, is to shift your energy usage to early morning or late evening when the state’s power grid is not under stress. “In Utah, because the energy usage is growing around 2 percent and the peak demand is growing at 5 percent, it is becoming more and more difficult to meet demand.” She suggested washing dishes and doing laundry during the evening hours rather than the middle of the day or increasing the setting on the air conditioning thermostat up just a couple of degrees.
During last year’s PowerForward campaign, which runs from June 1 to Sept. 15, 10 yellow alerts were declared for the Wasatch Front region. No red alerts have been issued since the program began. “Ideally, we won’t have to declare any alerts this season but it all comes down to whether we have a hot summer,” said Glade Sowards, energy program coordinator for DEQ.
Kennecott Land is making the commitment to energy efficiency by requiring its builders to build Energy Star homes at its Daybreak community in South Jordan. It also is a Rocky Mountain Power Blue Sky Visionary Partner, making the commitment to purchase 100 percent of its energy use in Blue Sky Renewable Energy.
“By changing how we use energy, individuals can make a big difference – not only on energy conservation and cost savings, but also in protecting the environment,” said Peter McMahon, president of Kennecott Land.
For more information on ways to conserve and sign up for PowerForward alerts, visit www.powerforward.utah.gov (opens in a new window).