MUSCATINE COUNTY, Iowa — Eastern Iowa REC is asking its customers to voluntarily conserve energy use as the Quad Cities area slowly slips out of its Extreme Heat Advisory Wednesday.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which oversees and manages the electrical grid system in eastern Iowa, issued a "maximum generation alert," which means online generation is at full output.
Because of this, utility company Eastern Iowa REC is asking membered customers to voluntarily conserve energy use.
"[MISO] monitors the grid, and they monitor the load and the demand on the grid, and then when it reaches a certain threshold, they will simply shut off certain generating plans to avoid a catastrophic failure of the grid," said Eastern Iowa REC Communication Director Williams.
Williams has worked for REC for over 32 years. This is the first time an alert like this has been sent out during his career. The alert asked customers to especially avoid energy use during peak hours from 4-9 p.m.
"That's when people are coming home from work," Williams said. "They're more active in their homes, doing chores and different things."
Eastern Iowa REC is a rural service territory that runs from south Maquoketa to north Burlington and west Iowa City. They serve about 18,500 homes, farms and businesses in that area.
"What we're asking our members to do is basically turn the thermostat on your air conditioner up a few degrees," Williams said. "Put off using your dishwasher, your clothes washer, high-use electric appliances until later in the night or early in the morning. Turn the lights off when you leave the room. Simple things like that turned into the ceiling fans off if you're not going to be in the room."
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