How Much Electricity Will You Use This Week?

Once again this winter, Yukon Energy is making a weekly chart available that shows how much electricity we expect people to use over the next seven days. The chart, found here, will help you see how close we are to having to turn on our diesel generators to meet the 'peak demand' on our Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro transmission system, which services the Southern and much of the Central Yukon.

Peak demand can be explained this way: the amount of power that Yukon Energy must generate fluctuates depending on the time of day and the time of year. The breakfast and dinner periods, when families are using electricity to cook meals, heat water for showers or dishwashing, etc. are the times when energy demand is at its highest. This is especially true in the winter, when there is less day light and it is much colder than at other times during the year.

The green line on the chart indicates the amount of power we expect to need to generate at any given time this week. As long as it stays below the solid blue line, it means we anticipate meeting the energy demand using clean hydro. However any time you see orange peaks on the graph, it means we expect having to supplement with diesel during the period of time indicated in orange.

If you are careful with your energy consumption during peak times, you can help reduce the amount of diesel burned and save yourself some money in the process.

There are a number of simple ways of doing this. For instance, you could delay turning on your dishwasher until after the evening peak. You could opt for a quick shower instead of a bath, since hot water accounts for a substantial percentage of power used during peak periods. You can use a timer for your vehicle’s battery blanket or oil pan heater. Little things like these add up in terms of cutting down on power use.