EVERETT – Finding ways to make money and cut personal spending is practically becoming a national pastime in the current climate of inflation. Some people call them side hustles. Some people call them life hacks.
Whatever your preference, you could cut your electricity bill in 2027—and your neighbor’s, too—if you’re a Snohomish Public Utility District customer, with a new program. All you have to do is be willing to voluntarily dial back your household electricity consumption when usage peaks.
The new program, Peak Assist, starts in January, inviting PUD customers to sign up for alerts during peak electrical demand and then incentivizing customers to dial back their household electricity consumption to reduce impact on the grid and ultimately drop the price of everybody’s electrical bills.
“We’re attempting to partner with our customer base and allow them to help keep costs low,” Shane Frye, program manager for PUD’s Energy Services Department says.
Most of us tend to think of electricity bills spiking in the dead of winter or the heat of summer, to heat our homes or cool our homes, but Nick Peretti, professional engineer with PUD’s Energy Storage and Emerging Technologies, says every month involves periods of peak consumption, creating a variety of chances to reduce costs.
“During those peak events each month, the power that we’re purchasing is very expensive. And so, if we can avoid buying that power, that’s good for everyone. It’s good for the customers,” Peretti tells the EverettPost.com.
It’s basic economics. Reduce demand and price drops.
To launch the new Peak Assist program, Snohomish PUD customers are being offered incentives like bill credits if they sign up for the program and voluntarily participate. It starts with a $25 bill credit for signing up and taking an initial survey after the first peak-demand event. Additional bill credits, if you participate, can occur monthly for $50 and 25 winners will be drawn for $200 bill credits at the end of 2027.
If you want to sign up for Peak Assist and the potential bill credits, Frye says use the PUD on-line account access, My Sno PUD, “give (your) email and phone number.”
Once customers are registered, Frye says, when the PUD forecasts that monthly demand spike, “We send them notifications a day ahead of time, and then when the event starts, to let them know when to start reducing their usage. And it’s typically for a two-to-three-hour period of time.”
Frye reinforces, “We’re not asking customers to turn off their heat or anything like that. But, maybe adjust it a couple degrees or something like that. Just small adjustments can add up when when you get a majority of the customers that are participating. We also give them ideas on what they can do during those periods of time to help conserve,” electricity, Frye elaborates, “shifting doing laundry, not cooking during that period of time, maybe barbecuing instead,” providing a few examples.
If PUD customers participate in 2027 and electricity consumption drops, Peretti says, “We get to make less expensive purchases for power during that period of time. We buy our power from BPA (Bonneville Power Administration). During those peak events is also when transformers, distribution lines, all the equipment out there to serve our customers are stressed the most. So it provides the dual benefit: it can prevent damage to equipment receiving a lot of stress and it reduced the cost of the power during that period.”
For program specifics on Peak Assist and to sign up, click here.
Participation is voluntary, and brief events are called no more than twice per month, the PUD says, allowing you to decide whether to participate each time. Text and email notifications will be sent a day before, at the start of, and at the end of each event.
“Providing that notification a day ahead and letting our customers participate by doing what they can to reduce energy during that period,” Peretti says provides flexibility. “No obligation, just an optional participation to reduce congestion on the grid.”
The post-event survey will remain open for 3 days from the end of each event. Submit the survey after the event for a chance to win monthly and annual bill credit drawings. The PUD website says there’s no risk and no change to your PUD rate.
“Events will occur every month,” Peretti says, “So, every month has its highs and lows. Even in spring, you could have a particularly cold day that ends up being the highest demand on our grid or a spring day could also be a particularly hot day. But spring and fall, it could go either way. Each month it’s just going to be based off our ability to forecast congestion on the grid and identifying the hours in which we want to call the event.”
If the Peak Assist program works as intended starting in 2027, it should maintain grid reliability and pass some cost savings along to every customer, including potential bonus bill credits for the active participants, with the power of conservation.