UM in Baltimore asked to curtail power consumption
The University of Maryland in Baltimore has been asked to curb its power consumption Friday afternoon due to the high temperatures. Officials at BGE said the request came from the PJM Interconnection (not BGE itself, as suggested here earlier).
PJM is the power grid manager that serves Maryland and all or parts of 12 other states, and it has asked large institutions participating in its Long Lead Time Load Management program BGE to curtail power usage this afternoon because of the heat. The move makes it easier for PJM to balance supply and demand across its system.
Also, BGE has activated its Peak Rewards program, cycling 453,000 participating residential customers' air conditioners and water heaters to reduce the local on the local segment of the grid. That, too was done at the request of PJM. 
Here's part of the school's message to UM in Baltimore employees.
"Facilities will reduce the load on our cooling systems automatically, but we need your assistance to reduce our load by turning off non-critical lighting and electrical devices, walking up or down two floors rather than using the elevator, and scheduling discretionary equipment usage for earlier or later in the day."Your assistance is important in helping the utilities meet their critical loads during periods of extremely warm or extremely cold weather that exceed the generating capacity of the power companies and help us avoid importing high cost power from other areas of the country or needing to endure brown outs or black outs of power."
Comments
JHU got the same message.
Posted by: Laurie | July 22, 2011 12:32 PM
Frank,
According to your models, when can we expect temperatures to move closer to the average for late July/August?
Thanks and stay cool!
FR: We should be back to near average by early next week. But probably not for long.
Posted by: Al | July 22, 2011 12:54 PM
UMBC (baltimore county) had a similar thing. We got this alert earlier today: "A "demand response" event has been issued by BG&E at noon. Bldgs will experience increase in space temps till 6p.m."
Posted by: April | July 22, 2011 1:43 PM
A similar request was sent to faculty at Towson University.
Posted by: Edwin Duncan | July 22, 2011 2:08 PM
Take a look at the graph and you see that only 4 of 21 days in July were within the normal range. All the others (17) above. Global warming or climate change is a real as the nose on your face and yet morons still reject it.
Posted by: Vince | July 22, 2011 2:10 PM
Vince, simply because someon does not agreee with the theory of global warming does not make them a moron. Many of us are old enough to remember summers years ago that were equally as warm.
Posted by: Willie | July 22, 2011 4:39 PM
Hopkins' Homewood campus sent out the same notice.
Posted by: Marian | July 22, 2011 6:04 PM
Willie,
Yes, some of us are old enough to realize that some summers in the past were warm. But were the winters also warmer? For 316 CONSECUTIVE months worldwide?
I agree with Vince. Those who do not want to believe in what science is reporting WORLDWIDE are morons.
Posted by: Mike | July 22, 2011 8:29 PM
Ok so carbon levels are reaching record highs and trending higher. Can we do anything at all about it? And how many will die because of the impact on global economies? poverty levels? Its not as simple as either side would have you believe, the science aint junk but the economics are clearcut either. We need a more rational discussion all around. Whats it worth to reduce Carbon 10% vs. cost.
Posted by: MIke2 | July 22, 2011 9:27 PM