Today In Mississippi

Electrical generation will expand
with rise in electricity demand

By Michael Callahan
Electric Power Associations of Mississippi Executive Vice President/CEO

Most Mississippians experienced record-setting, triple-digit temperatures in August, as did most of the South. Remember that fact when your energy bill arrives this month; it will reflect how your air conditioning and refrigeration ramped up to keep you cool (and your food safe) in the extreme heat.

Electricity use soared in recent weeks due to summertime temperature extremes, but electricity demand in this country and worldwide has been rising steadily for years. Electricity demand is expected to grow by 39 percent through 2030 in the residential sector and by 63 percent in the commercial sector, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

You expect electricity to be there when you need it. But it’s important to realize that significant amounts of electrical power cannot be stored; it must be generated on demand. When your air conditioner switches on, for example, the electricity to power it is produced at that moment.

Consider what happens when everyone else’s air conditioners are running at the same time: the demand for electricity rises dramatically. After nightfall, air conditioners usually run less, and use less power.

The afternoon spike in electrical use—when all the air conditioners are running full blast on the hottest summer days—cannot be allowed to overwhelm electrical generation facilities. Thus, the electrical utility industry must have the generation capacity to meet that peak demand.

It’s not unlike, say, the plight of the restaurant owner whose customers all show up for lunch. He must have a larger kitchen, more seating capacity and more workers than the cafe down the street whose customers trickle in and out throughout the day. And he may even need a drive-up window to serve all his customers at the same time.

Meeting future energy needs will require the utility industry to produce more electrical power, through the construction of new power plants and more efficient use of existing plants. Planning and building power plants is a serious commitment that must address high investment costs, fuel sources, environmental concerns, the cost of regulatory compliance and many other factors.

New technology and initiatives, combined with support from U.S. policymakers, will be the key to producing electricity more efficiently and more cleanly. Research is under way to determine ways to produce affordable electricity while reducing greenhouse gases. And the development of the next generation of nuclear technologies, with its emphasis on safety and waste reduction, is getting support from the Department of Energy.

Electric power association members’ ability to afford electricity produced by new technologies will be the bottom line, in our view. Electric power associations were created to distribute affordable and reliable electricity to residential, commercial and industrial members in rural Mississippi. That mission is as important now as it was when our first electric power association was formed in 1934.

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Electric Power Associations of Mississippi
P.O. Box 3300 Ridgeland, Mississippi 39158-3300 phone 601.605.8600 fax 601.605.8601