This summer, we’ve been tracking peak demand, peak temperatures, and prices with help from the data collected by ISO New England (ISO-NE), the grid operator for our region. We monitored energy trends on a daily basis to provide insights to our Shave the Peak subscribers.
The beginning of July marked record-breaking heat in Boston and Providence. These temperatures caused electricity demand to surge—known as peak demand events—as people ran their air conditioners to stay cool.
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As summer approaches, thousands of our followers prepare to “Shave the Peak.”
Subscribers to our Shave the Peak program will receive text and email alerts about how and when to reduce power use on days when electricity demand is significantly higher than usual. As we begin to see temperatures rise above 90°F this summer,more people will turn on their air conditioners to stay cool. This increased electricity demand leads to the grid operator having to call on more expensive and polluting power sources such as oil- and gas-fired “peaker plants". These fossil-fuel-powered peaker plants contribute only a fraction of our electricity over the course of the year (about 2-7%) but have an enormous impact on energy prices and air pollution.
The energy system is changing. Emerging Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)—like smart thermostats, window heat pumps, battery storage, and plug-in solar—can all help households lower energy bills, improve resilience, and support a cleaner, more affordable electric grid.
This summer, we collected data every day from ISO-New England, the nonprofit Independent System Operator responsible for ensuring reliable electricity delivery across the six New England states. We tracked the forecasted high temperature, the forecasted and actual peak load, the time of said peak, the peak price of electricity and its timing, the CO2 emissions at peak, the output of behind the meter (BTM) solar and its timing, and whether or not we sent out a Shave the Peak notification to our subscribers who receive alerts on when and how to reduce electricity use during times of high stress on the grid. Stay tuned to find out how many Shave the Peak alerts we sent out this summer!
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As summer approaches, thousands of our followers are preparing to “Shave the Peak.”
Shave the Peak is our program designed to inform people, via text and email alerts, how and when to reduce power use on days when demand for electricity is significantly higher than usual.
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