CEO’s Message – June 2025

How Extreme Summer Temps Affect Reliability

Spring is here and summer is just around the corner! Like many of you, I’m eager to welcome longer, warmer, and sunnier days. Unfortunately, though, when it really heats up, that’s when the electric grid experiences the most strain. That’s because air conditioners run longer, and more often, to counteract baking outdoor temperatures. On top of that, we all tend to use the most electricity at the same time — before work in the morning and when we get home in the early evenings — which adds up to a lot of strain on our local grid. More importantly, it also stresses transmission lines and generation that make up the multistate electric grid.

Of course, Union Rural Electric Cooperative (URE) works closely with Buckeye Power, our generation and transmission cooperative, to plan resources and infrastructure, ensuring you have power whenever you need it. However, the electric grid is much larger than just URE and Buckeye Power. We work hard to maintain electric reliability in extreme weather through regular system upgrades, maintenance, grid modernization e  orts, and disaster response planning — but overall reliability is impacted by everyone who operates or uses the interconnected grid.

In the summer months, when a large amount of electricity is being used simultaneously across the country, it is possible for electricity demand to exceed supply, especially if we have a prolonged and widespread heat wave. When this happens, which is rare, the grid operator for our region of the country may call on consumers (like you!) to actively reduce their energy use, or in extreme cases, they may even order utilities to initiate rolling power outages to relieve pressure on the grid.

What can you do to help ensure we keep prices affordable and reduce strain on the grid? Here are a few things you can do during times of extreme summer heat:

• June is a great time to seal any air leaks around windows and exterior doors with caulk and weatherstripping. Air leaks and drafts force your heating or cooling system to work harder than necessary, even though you may not notice it until it’s extremely hot or cold.
• Select the most comfortable thermostat setting and turn it up several degrees whenever possible. Set a schedule on your programmable thermostat to let it warm up when you’re away and cool down when you get home. AC units run longer and use much more energy when there is a large difference between indoor and outdoor air temperatures.
• Use ceiling fans to make yourself feel a few degrees cooler. Remember, ceiling fans cool people (not rooms), so make sure to turn them off in unoccupied rooms since they don’t provide a cooling benefit otherwise.
• Close window blinds, curtains, and shades during the hottest part of the day to block unwanted heat gain from sunlight.
• Use smaller appliances, such as slow cookers, air fryers, and toaster ovens, to cook meals. All of these use less energy than an oven.

When the grid is strained due to a heat wave, delay your use of major appliances like dishwashers, ovens, dryers, and electric vehicle chargers until late evening, when the demand for electricity is lower.

As we look forward to summertime, understanding our effect on energy demand is important for maintaining a reliable power supply. By adopting some simple conservation practices, you can reduce strain on the electric grid during a heat wave — and save some cash.