THE MOVEMENT IS GROWING and it’s helping to keep power costs from doing the same. More than 50,000 electric cooperative members across South Carolina have signed up to receive phone, email or text notifications that remind them to reduce their electricity consumption during peak use periods. That number will continue to rise, thanks in part to this spring’s prize drawings.

Palmetto Electric Cooperative members who register for the Beat the Peak notification program by June 30 will be eligible to win a $500 Visa gift card in a statewide prize drawing. In addition, one Palmetto Electric Cooperative member will win a $100 gift card from a local prize drawing. If you are already participating in Beat the Peak, it is not necessary to register again to be eligible for the prizes.  Members that register receive an alert that shows the projected time of a systemwide energy peak, typically occurring in the late afternoon of high temperature days or the waking hours of cold mornings. By voluntarily delaying the use of large appliances, adjusting your thermostat or just turning off some lights during that peak time, you’ll help to lower wholesale power costs.

In combination with other demand control efforts like H2O Select and the Smart Thermostat program, electric cooperatives have saved nearly $580,000 in annual power costs.  If you’d like to join the movement, you can sign up at BeatThePeak.com by completing a simple form on the website and indicating how you want to receive peak alerts.