Monday August 11 – Today is the day, so who you gonna call? Peak Busters! We’re taking action today – one of the hottest days in August, to shave the peak and show local utility companies and our regional grid regulator ISO-NE that we don’t need fossil fuel peaker plants – we can replace them with people power!
There are lots of ideas in our toolkit for how to take action today – it can be as simple as turning off (or down) some appliances, or as big as gathering a group of friends for an outdoor fossil-free picnic. The best time to peak-bust is right around dinner time – 5-8pm as the sun sets on all our solar panels and folks are coming home from work, camp, and school to cool off and relax at home.
Whatever you’re able to do, tell us about it here – we’ll tally up all the reported actions and how much energy they saved and report back at the next ISO-NE meeting on September 11th. And you can share the news about peak busting and encourage others to participate using these social media posts.
Our original message from Aug 5 is below in case you want to forward to a friend or check out more ideas.
August 5 – For years we’ve worked with the No Coal, No Gas movement in New England to shut down fossil fuels, build up justice, and create a community around our vision for a clean, democratically controlled, electric grid.
A few years ago, we won a major victory when we secured a final shutdown date for the last coal fired power plant in New England – the so-called Merrimack Generating station in Bow New Hampshire. Last year, we celebrated the victory and set a new goal to snuff out the fossil fueled peaker plants in new England, which mostly run on oil and gas.
We’re calling on all Peak Busters to unite on Monday, August 11 and take action to shave the peak, and snuff out fossil fuel peaker plants. There are lots of ways to take action in our toolkit, and you can sign up here to join our community. But the most important thing is just to take action on Monday that lowers you and your community’s electric demand. It can be as simple as unplugging a power strip, or as complicated as visiting a peaker plant with your crew to hold a protest.
Here’s a few ideas and some more context, for new peak busters:
August is usually the hottest part of the summer here in New England, and sets the annual peak of electricity demand. On the very highest energy use day, the one hour of highest energy use is called the “peak” of demand. That one hour peak is used by utility companies and our regional grid regulator, ISO New England, to set annual electric rates and plan spending and investment in new infrastructure, fuel, and more. We want to show the managers of our energy grid that we can build a better system that actually works for all of us, and doesn’t rely on fossil fuels or corporate profits.
So, in addition to signing up to take action as a peak buster and join our crew, we’re asking you to take action on August 11 that lowers the peak of electricity demand and/or helps explain peak busting and peaker plants to your friends and neighbors. Want some suggestions? As our toolkit says, you could:
- Host a potluck with a few friends and neighbors at one house to reduce energy use. Have the host use lights and air conditioning, but all guests shut everything off and unplug what they can before they leave their house. Here’s some tools you can use!
- Host a protest, rally, speak out or picnic at your nearest peaker plant – click here for a map of New England peaker plants.
- Visit a big box store (like a Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot) and hand out info or demonstrate how they can reduce their energy use (unplugging the lightbulb aisle, for example).
- Pressuring big energy users —like a local data center — to reduce their energy use with signs, banners, or a creative display.
- There are lots more ideas, tools and information in our toolkit, so sign up, take a look and unite with your fellow Peak Busters!
Whatever you decide to do, do it on Monday August 11 (or near that date, we can never be sure which day will be the peak) and then tell us about it here. The Peak Busters United team will gather all the reports and compare them to real-time reporting from ISO New England to report back next week. And, if you’re keen to connect with other peak busters from around New England, join us online or in-person in Manchester New Hampshire on Sept 11 for the next meeting of the ISONE Consumer Liaison group!