Statewide – Bonneville Power Administration operators are prepared for the energy anomaly that they see every Thanksgiving Day.
They’ve planned for an unusual bulge, or peak, in the morning as millions of people across the Pacific Northwest gather to cook meals, which rely heavily on the use of ovens and other appliances. After the big meal, system operators will be on hand to ramp power down during the tryptophan drop off.
“Most of the year, electricity usage follows typical seasonal patterns but severe weather and special events can always present different, even dramatically different, realities,” said Elliot Mainzer, BPA’s administrator and chief executive officer.
On a typical November weekday, BPA’s regional load sees two peaks-one in the morning and one in the evening. But on Thanksgiving there is a different pattern. Unlike a typical morning where the most electricity usage peaks around 7 or 8 a.m., Thanksgiving ramps up at 9 a.m. as people cook their turkeys and pies. Power consumption on Thanksgiving then tends to stay up higher throughout the morning compared to a normal day when loads drop off in the middle of the day. When Thanksgiving loads start to wane, they stay low for the rest of the day, as cooking is done and the tryptophan sets in, rather than increasing again to an evening peak as they would on normal weekdays.
“This is a time of year we are even more thankful for the many men and women across the Northwest, at utilities big and small, who work diligently to keep power flowing so the rest of us can enjoy our holiday traditions,” said administrator Mainzer.
