SEATTLE — Puget Sound Energy put out multiple alerts over the weekend asking people to conserve energy.
A spokesperson for PSE said Tuesday this was needed due to having multiple unusually cold days in a row, which caused them to reach a record-high demand for gas and electricity.
“So, on Friday night, we set a record, a new record for peak demand and the loads on Saturday were at near record highs,” said Christina Donegan, a spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy.
PSE issued alerts on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday asking all customers to conserve energy after setting that new record.
“The system is designed to meet what we call peak energy needs so it's designed to serve customers on those coldest days of the year,” Donegan said.
Another reason they asked customers to conserve energy is because their gas storage facility in Lewis County had an outage while demand was high on Saturday afternoon.
"By having customers cut back on energy it just reduces strain on the system, and it can help you have a cushion just in case you do lose another generation resource or something, so you have that there to make sure you can keep serving customers,” Donegan said.
When asked about her response to customers who were concerned and frustrated over these requests to conserve energy during the cold snap, she said this:
“I completely understand, it was cold in my house all weekend," Donegan said. "It's hard when it's cold, especially when it's cold for as long as it has been. These are voluntary assets. And it's not only turning the heat down, it's doing other things. So maybe you usually do run your dishwasher right after dinner, you could run it before you go to sleep.”
When it comes to the future, Puget Sound Energy is looking to add new types of energy sources. This is imperative because starting in 2025 state law will no longer allow them to use coal for energy. Right now Donegan said coal is an on-demand, and easily dispatched resource, so they are looking into other things to replace it like nuclear and hydrogen energy.
“We've got to consider, and PSE is looking at that very closely, as you leave resources like coal, you need to find sources where you can have reliability for customers at the same time," Donegan said.