Minnesota Power today asked its customers to conserve energy at their homes and businesses due to high temperatures and increased energy demand -- not here in the Northland but across the rest of the Midwest.
The regional electrical grid consortium called MISO, which serves the entire Midwest including northern Minnesota, is experiencing very high demand due to the prolonged heat wave and high use of air conditioning.
The most important time to cut electrical usage is between noon and 8 p.m. today.
Tips for conserving energy include postponing the use of large appliances such as electric clothes washers, dryers and stoves during those hours and raising the temperature setting of your thermostat to 77 degrees.
Ironically, Minnesota Power is seeing only a 2 to 3 percent increase in power demand over a normal summer like last year, a company spokeswoman for the Duluth-based utility said, and even a hot summer still sees lower electrical use in the Northland than winter, when Minnesota Power sees its highest electrical demand.
