WG&E experiences decrease in electricity use.
WG&E provides electric service to residents and businesses in Westfield, and it is directly impacted by what happens within the city. When the city grows, it means that WG&E’s electric load increases, which historically has been happening over the last five to ten years. In 2009, we have been faced with a different set of conditions, as a result of the economy and a cooler than normal summer which has required less air-conditioning electric load.
WG&E, like most electric utilities, has a program that reviews, on a monthly basis, electric sales and electric purchases to determine that actual and forecasted loads (kWh) are in line with projections. In 2009, we are seeing a definite decrease in both electric sales and electric generation. Our electric sales to date for 2009 are 208,918,333 kWh, compared to 217,783,660 kWh for the same period in 2008, a decrease of 8,865,327 kWh or -4.07%. After a review of factors that may have caused this to occur, it was traced back to a number of our major customers having reduced their electric usage by 3,367,328 kWh in total, which is almost 50% of the total reduction in kWh sales. The rest is attributable to cooler summer temperatures and the lack of air-conditioning load.
We do not expect to see any significant increase in our commercial or industrial electric loads, but we may see a more normal pattern of electric usage from our residential electric customers as we leave the summer months, and go into the fall and winter periods.
