ENERGY CONSERVATION & SEAPA ANNUAL SHUTDOWN

SEAPA will be shutting down the hydroelectric feed to Petersburg from June 10th – 18th to allow for numerous critical maintenance activities at Tyee Lake, Swan Lake and the SEAPA Intertie transmission line. Petersburg Municipal Power & Light is asking the community to conserve electricity to minimize the loads, enabling us to keep our added costs down when operating diesels. Customers are encouraged to conserve power which helps us burn less diesel and creates a lighter load for our generators. Below are some tips to conserve energy to help lower kWh usage.

• Water heating is the 2nd largest energy consumer in your home using more than 10-20% of your home’s total energy use. Take shorter showers, don’t run hot water continuously, wash clothes in cold water. Turn down the temperature of your water heater to 115-120 degrees F.

• Caulking & weather stripping can be an inexpensive way to help insulate your home. When caulking, pay special attention to electrical outlets and switches. Locating a place that needs weather stripping is simple, just feel for drafts around doors and windows, especially on a windy day.

• Turn off your computer monitor when not in use for more than 20 minutes and turn off both the CPU and monitor if you're not going to use your computer for more than 2 hours. Leaving a computer on all day can cost about 21 cents per day, or about $75 per year.

• Unplug electronics and appliances that drain energy when not in use (i.e., cell phone chargers, fans, coffeemakers, laptops, desktop printers, radios, gaming systems, heat tapes etc.).

• On average, more than half of a home’s energy dollars goes to heating and cooling. Now is a great time to clean your heat pump or replace filters in your furnace. Using programmable thermostats to control heating and cooling systems can reduce costs.

• Mid-May is the time to unplug heat tapes!

• Running appliances, such as dishwashers, washers & dryers, during non-peak hours will help our operators with energy demand during shutdown. Peak hours are from 7am-10am and 5pm-8pm. 

PMPL thanks our customers for their understanding, support, and conservations. Questions? Call PMPL at 772-5433

See https://www.energy.gov/eere/femp/home-energy-checklist for more tips