By Lillian Johnson

Memphis Light Gas & Water, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Memphis Public Library have teamed-up to offer two new programs to help Shelby County residents reduce energy consumption: Get EnergySmart @ Your Library and Kill-A-Watt Checkout.

Get EnergySmart @ Your Library is a two-hour workshop that imparts practical tips and offers hands-on instruction. Attendees leave Get EnergySmart sessions with a tote valued at $50 that includes gadgets and tools to complete simple do-it-yourself projects that will save money and energy.

For those wondering just how much it costs to run their home appliances, Kill-A-Watt Checkout will help identify electricity-gorging culprits. The Kill-A-Watt devices can be checked-out from area libraries with a valid library card. Determining consumption using Kill-A-Watt is easy. The electricity usage monitors plug into wall sockets. Plug an appliance into the monitor to assess energy usage. Each Kill-A-Watt is pre-programmed with MLGW rates. Knowing how much electricity it takes to operate an appliance can help residents manage electricity usage, potentially saving hundreds of dollars.

Both programs are free. However, registration is required for the Get EnergySmart workshops; call the presenting branch to reserve a space. For general information about Get EnergySmart or the Kill-A-Watt Checkout program, call 901-415-2700.

Get EnergySmart Workshop Dates
Tuesday, July 12, 10:30am – South Branch, 1929 S. Third – 901-946-8518
Tuesday, July 12, 3pm – Frayser Branch, 3712 Argonne – 901-357-4115
Tuesday, July 19, 10:30am – Hollywood Branch, 1530 N. Hollywood – 901-323-6201
Tuesday, August 9, 10:30am – Cordova Branch, 8457 Trinity Rd. – 901-754-8443
Tuesday, August 9, 3pm – Poplar White-Station Branch, 5094 Poplar Ave. – 901-682-1616
Tuesday, August 16, 3pm – Cornelia Crenshaw, 531 Vance – 901-525-1643

By Debbie Sowell

On December 31, 2010 we closed the books on the Smallest User Grant Contest with Cooper-Young in the lead. We get the prize; we get the glory. We can be proud of our community and what we have accomplished together. All the data that was collected proves that we are making a difference. In fact, Cooper-Young blew the control group out of the water! Nevertheless, let us not be finished with this important fight.

Throughout the past year many of you attended meetings and forums, you posted on blogs, you read emails and Lamplighter articles, you adjusted your lifestyle, and you spent your weekends doing home improvement projects, all in the name of energy conservation. The benefits are yours to have and to hold. You have the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing your part for the planet, as well as helping your pocketbook. Please continue to turn those lights out, turn down the temperature on your hot water tanks, and install those digital thermostats. Continue to look at your homes periodically and think, “What can I do to help lower my energy bill?” Go ahead and be selfish! It is all good for mother earth!

I would like to thank those who worked behind the scenes to make this competition happen.  Evergreen’s leaders were Chris Morton and Bill Bullock. The University of Memphis Journalism Department was a Smallest User sponsor, and the staff and students worked to form surveys, come up with campaign ideas, and maintain the blog. So, thank you Ashley Akin, Dr Morgan D. Arant, Jr., Beena White, and Dr. Rick Fischer for your hard work on this project. In addition, I’d like to thank Tom Chamberlain and Sydney Taylor of MLGW for their help. They were truly invaluable throughout this process.

Congratulations Cooper-Young! You did well. Now keep up the fight.

By Bill Bullock

The electricity network, all the way from generation to a customer’s meter, is similar to a highway system. If roads are built to handle all traffic smoothly during the few hours per week of rush hour then they are significantly over-built for the rest of the time. Often, there is a compromise in road building where there are bottlenecks and delays at times, but vehicles eventually get where they are going.

In distributing electricity, such compromise is not a good option. A bottle neck at any point in the process, whether a lack of generation or too small of a wire or transformer on a pole, can result in an outage. For this reason, infrastructure is built to handle peak load conditions.

Peak load conditions on an electric grid in the southeast US typically occur on hot summer weekday afternoons, between about 4 and 8 pm. During this time many businesses are still open, many residents are returning to their homes, and energy intensive air conditioning load is the most significant contributor to setting the peak. Power demand during those few hours per week can be significantly higher than demand for the rest of the week. There must be enough generation plants on line to handle that load, and even the least efficient and most costly plants must be operated to meet electricity demand at the peak.

Most electric consumers in Memphis are not aware of this because there is no residential time differentiated electric metering. The electric meters currently used act like odometers. They accurately measure usage over time and a meter reader reads them once per month. Monthly bills merely take the kilowatt-hours used during the month and multiply that number by an average rate. During peak periods, this average rate does not cover the actual cost of generation. During off peak periods, the average rate exceeds the actual cost of generation.

The industry is quickly moving towards giving customers information and price signals to encourage moving load off the peak. If you know you are paying a lot for electricity during a few hours of operation during system peaks, you may change your habits. Perhaps you would delay starting a dishwasher or electric clothes dryer. You may switch your pool pump off during that time. Perhaps you would even pre-cool your house so your air conditioner compressor would not come on very long during that period.

Activities like that, done by many people, will lower the cost of electricity. Fewer generation plants would need to be built, reducing capital expenditures. Additionally, the most inefficient plants would be used less, lowering operating costs.

However, turning things on and off, delaying start times, and other strategies for moving load off peak can be tough to accomplish. What if you forget? What if you are not home? When are the peak times?

This is where the Smart Grid comes into play. Smart Grid is a combination of equipment, communications, and processes that utilities use to provide enhanced operations. Under the umbrella of Smart Grid are smart meters, switches, monitors, analysis software, distribution system automation, demand response and communications equipment between the utility and customers. The basic concept of Smart Grid is to add monitoring, analysis, and communication capabilities to the national electrical delivery system to maximize its capabilities while simultaneously helping consumers to reduce their energy consumption.

A traffic engineer could lower road building costs if he could get commuters on a staggered schedule so they are not all on the road at the same time. Likewise, a utility system operator could lower electrical costs by mandating when you can turn on appliances. Neither will occur, but on the electric side, the Smart Grid will be able to give customers knowledge and tools to shape their load and save energy and money if they choose. Many people making small adjustments can have significant impact.

For example, if every household in the Tennessee Valley was able to shed the equivalent of two 100 watt light bulbs at system peak, this would eliminate the need for a generation facility the size of the Allen Generating Plant in Memphis. That is significant!

In addition to reducing the costs associated with generating electricity, the Smart Grid would allow MLGW to reduce its operating expenses. Meter readers will become a thing of the past, reducing staff. Additionally, misread or estimated meters would be virtually eliminated, reducing the need to staff for issues caused by those circumstances. MLGW would immediately know when a house or business has suffered a power outage, reducing the need for troubleshooting. Utility theft, an issue larger than most realize, would be much easier to prevent and catch because when meters are removed, MLGW would know it immediately.

It will be a while before all of Memphis is on the Smart Grid. In the mean time, however, know that your personal choices have an impact not only on how much electricity you consume, but on the cost to generate and distribute that electricity as well.

Log on to mlgw.com and click on “Smart Grid” for answers to frequently asked questions and MLGW’s progress on this topic. Go to “In Home Evaluation Program” to learn of MLGW/TVA incentives for making energy improvements and investments. Look at “Energy Tax Incentives” to see how some of these improvements qualify for Federal Tax Credits. Use “My Account” to track your energy use, get energy conservation tips, view and pay your bill, or sign up for paperless billing.

Bill Bullock has been working in the energy field for over 25 years, and is a long-time resident of Midtown Memphis. If you have questions regarding this information or energy use in general, contact him at bbullock@mlgw.org.

By Glen Thomas

Memphis Light, Gas and Water has issued a challenge to its customers in an effort to improve nighttime safety. MLGW’s Streetlight Challenge gives the utility a week to fix common streetlight outages or the utility will name the streetlight after the person whom reported the outage.

“Most of the time we do not know that a streetlight is out unless our customers let us know,” said MLGW President and CEO Jerry Collins Jr. “We need our customers’ help to keep their neighborhoods safe by ensuring streetlights and leased outdoor lights are working.”

Outages that can be restored by replacing burned out bulbs, photo cells or day burners will be repaired within seven days. If the utility fails to do so, the first customer who reported the outage will receive a certificate from Collins declaring that streetlight to be named after that person. Some outages, such as those involving underground wiring or downed poles may take longer than seven days to repair. If repairs will take longer than seven days, MLGW will contact the customer.

“We want our customers to know just how hard MLGW employees work for our community. Safety is a top priority for us and this is a way that we can guarantee that streetlight repairs are made quickly,” Collins said. “It is our guarantee to customers.”

Customers can report a streetlight outage online at mlgw.com or they can call MLGW’s Customer Care Center at 901-820-7878. When calling you can save time by using the quick code 1-2-1-4 for English speakers or 3-2-1-4 for Spanish speaking customers. Please fill in all information asked for, including a call back number in case the utility has questions. An accurate address and the pole number, the number found on a metal plate about eye level on the pole, are vital to ensuring repairs are made.

MLGW wants to remind customers that not all streetlights come on at the same time. 
Please wait for complete nightfall to occur before determining if a streetlight is not working.

MLGW is the largest three-service public power utility in the nation, serving more than 429,000 customers in Memphis and Shelby County. An April 2010 survey showed that MLGW has the second lowest combined (electric, natural gas, water and wastewater) residential rates out of 50 major 
US cities.

By Jim Brock

Okay, Cooper-Young. It’s our turn to shine. But keep those bright lights off when you’re not using them! This year our neighborhood is involved in the Smallest User competition with the Evergreen neighborhood. The purpose of this contest is to see which community can reduce its energy usage in 2010, and the benefits are two-fold: using less energy and allowing residents from both neighborhoods to spread their competitive wings.

According to a statement from the competition’s website, “We are monitoring the energy use of residents in each neighborhood in the hopes of reducing our city’s carbon footprint, helping residents save a few dollars and showing people how gratifying it can be to go green.” The competition, which is sponsored by a Strengthening Communities Grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, MLGW, the University of Memphis journalism department, the Cooper-Young Community Association and the Evergreen Historic District Association, will compare this year’s energy usage from both neighborhoods with the numbers from 2008.

While CY representatives involved with the program are happy to have strong community support, some feel there has been little emphasis on getting the word out about the competition. “It wasn’t promoted well the first half of the year,” said contest chairperson Debbie Sowell. “There was a University of Memphis journalism class doing research and working on a marketing plan for the competition but their findings were not presented to us until last month. I don’t think that most of the neighborhood knows that this is a competition. I think if Cooper-Young residents knew the numbers would be better.”

In hopes of better informing the neighborhood, the next CYCA meeting on Tuesday, July 13th, will be devoted almost entirely to the contest. Tom Chamberlin from MLGW will be there to report on the progress of the competition. He will also be there to explain some of MLGW’s programs that are available to CY residents to help them conserve energy. Lots of prizes will be given away as well as a host of simple, energy-saving tips for around the house. There might even be an appearance from the locally famous Zombie Boys (click here for a photo and article on the Zombie Boys).

For those interested in an update on the competition, Evergreen is in the lead. At the end of April, Evergreen had shaved 8.4 percent off of their energy usage compared to 2008, while CY had saved 1.5 percent. Evergreen households have saved an average of $70 on their energy bills while CY has saved $12, but the total percentage of savings determines the winner not the dollar amount.

As the old saying goes, however, “It ain’t over yet!” Sowell agrees, “We are very competitive in Midtown. I hate to lose and I know many of my neighbors feel the same. But if we can conserve even a small amount of energy and form better habits, we are all winners.”

After the contest ends on December 31st, the winning neighborhood will receive a small cash prize and an original piece of artwork created especially for the competition. Colin Kidder, the artist who has been commissioned for the work, has a unique design and concept in mind. Kidder will create a sculpture that will absorb the sun’s rays by day and glow at night. He is very excited to be working on this project, but since it is still unclear whether Cooper-Young or Evergreen will emerge victorious, Kidder is waiting to see if his design will need to be modified to fit the space before he begins his work.

The contest is limited to residences in both communities. Businesses are not included. For more information about the contest, including helpful tips to survive the summer months and ways to save on energy costs, visit smallestuser.com or become a follower on the Smallest User Facebook page.