Lansdale electric says ‘meters are spinning’ in summer heat

 As this summer’s heat waves roll on, and on, and on, Lansdale has brought back a familiar topic.

Can the borough save money on its electric bills by encouraging residents to save power on steamy summer days?

“We in the borough hit a new record high the other day: We saw the main substation hit 36 megawatts. We usually run at about 15 megawatts on any given day. So the meters are spinning,” said Electric Superintendent Andy Krauss.

Lansdale buys electricity wholesale from supplier American Municipal Power and sells it to residents and businesses, a system in place since a borough power plant near Third and Richardson Streets closed in 1972. Each year, Lansdale’s budget includes roughly $21 million in electric purchases, and a roughly $5 million surplus is transferred each year from the electric to general fund to cover operating expenses and capital projects.

Lansdale’s electric contract with AMP is structured to be load-following, so the supplier provides power at all times, but costs can rise based on peak demand at high-usage hours and seasons, like summer afternoons when air conditioners are at full blast. In a Facebook post this week, the borough noted that borough-wide electricity usage increased from 26.24 megawatts in July 2023 to 29.23 megawatts in July 2024.

    Image from aerial drone video showing solar panel arrays installed atop Lansdale Borough Hall, as seen from above the adjacent parking lot facing east toward Broad Street.
 Lansdale Borough   

Trying to reduce usage

The borough’s electric department tried in 2019 to cut down on peak prices by asking residents to reduce their demand, and the town has since held talks on adding new sources of electricity like more solar power in town, to reduce transmission costs along with the town’s electric bill. Options considered have included adding solar panels atop the Lansdale Public Library, the Fairmount Fire Company’s station across Vine Street, and in one or more of the town’s parks.

    Lansdale Electric crews work to replace a substation from the early 1970s in May 2024.
 Facebook/Lansdale Electric   

Councilman BJ Breish asked if the record high demand had led staff to consider asking residents to cut their demand, to reduce the town’s peak load and try to cut costs on the borough’s bill.

“I’m not going to ask everybody to turn off their air conditioners, but is there any value in us exploring something to help with that? Maybe turning on our solar electricity during certain times, or working with our larger corporations in town to try to work out a plan so we can save some money by peak shaving?” he said.

Krauss answered that the borough’s efforts in the past to do so have not been enough for the regional supplier to hit their targets.

“Peak shaving, in the past, has not saved us any money, because anytime we’ve tried to shave on load, the state or the grid has not hit that one peak,” he said.

    An electric vehicle decorated with “Lansdale Electric” decals is parked in front of the borough’s solar array at the Ninth Street utility complex, which generates the electricity used to power the vehicle.
 Lansdale Electric   

During prior peaks, Krauss told council, the regional wholesale supplier will alert local municipalities that a peak time is expected during a certain window, and if the entire region doesn’t get below their request, the savings won’t be realized.

Lansdale does have extra power generation capacity they can add by turning on generators at borough hall, the electric department headquarters on Ninth Street, and at the wastewater treatment plant next door, but doing so would also carry extra costs for staff overtime, and the electricity supplied by doing so isn’t enough to make up the difference.

“You’re talking about 600 KW, versus megawatt over megawatt,” Krauss said.

Other factors can also have an impact, like mother nature.

“We tried it as a community before, via social media: that email came in that said ‘this afternoon, try to do it’ and guess what, a thunderstorm rolled through, and we didn’t hit” the targeted reduction, he said.

“So now folks are upset, because we made them curtail load. I called Mr. Rex (Heat Treat, the town’s largest electricity user), and said to curtail load for me, and he said ‘I’m losing money because I’m shutting my load off, and you’re telling me the borough didn’t save any money?’ And that’s the same right down to the residential households, with air conditioners,” Krauss said.

Peak demand times

Peak hours tend to be in the late afternoon, when residents come home and appliances go on — which could be when the town’s solar panels start to sunset for the night.

“Very proud to say we’re spinning that meter backwards when the sun is out, but when you need the peak loads, right up to (early evening), sun’s down, solar’s not working,” Krauss said.

During high temperatures this week, the borough posted several energy-saving tips on social media, including cooking with a grill or microwave instead of an electric appliance, closing blinds, hanging clothes to dry, setting thermostats higher, unplugging unused appliances, and using fans instead of air conditioners when possible.

Mayor Garry Herbert added an option he’s advocated often in his Mayoral Musings column: more local solar power generation, so less wholesale electricity with transmission costs are needed.

“If we can’t peak shave, because it’s just not a viable option in order to save money, then we need to generate more of our own power throughout the day, in order to curb that,” he said.

Generating more during the day would help, Krauss said, but generation would still need to be matched with demand.

“There’s nothing to store that, or harness that energy, to use it when the demand is peaking. Everyone gets home from work, air conditioners get cranked up, everyone is taking a shower, hot water heaters are going, people now are charging electric cars. If we can’t harness that electricity in some sort of battery, it’s unusable when we need it to possibly save money,” Krauss said.

The borough’s electricity bill from the wholesaler does include a capacity charge that makes sure extra power is available during those high-demand times — but at a cost.

“That’s why we don’t have blackouts or brownouts in Pennsylvania, like they do in Texas, because we have a capacity (-based) market. But we pay a premium for that. We need to be able to store that energy, and use it when needed,” Krauss said.

Could some sort of storage be an option for the borough?

“You sold me: when do we buy the batteries?” Herbert asked, and Krauss answered: “I don’t know that we’re quite there yet. There’s some neat ideas and technologies out there. I think we’ll get there.”

Lansdale’s electric committee next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 7 and full borough council next meets at 8:30 p.m. that night; for more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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