How much electricity will you use today? How about tomorrow? You may not consider these questions as often as you think about your electric bill, but at Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, we think about them for you every day.
SVEC and our wholesale power provider, Seminole Electric Cooperative, measure your electricity use, as well as that of all other Seminole members on the grid. Our goal is to provide safe, reliable and affordable electricity, and we work with a team of analysts at Seminole to track the demand for electricity in real time and decide how to meet that need.
There are many factors that determine how much energy you use: your home appliances, the house you live in, your geography and even the weather. Predicting your actual electricity use on any given day is difficult, but information from the past can help us estimate future usage.
In addition to tracking real-time energy consumption, SVEC and Seminole develop long-range forecasts of energy requirements so we can plan for the generation and transmission needs our system will have years into the future. These forecasts take current demand and factor in changes like growth in population, economics and energy efficiency in our communities. Trends such as the use of technology like smart thermostats, self- installation of solar power systems and growth in electric vehicle purchases also impact our future energy consumption.
Weather plays a large role in how much electricity you and your neighbors will use. Seminole employees track weather patterns to understand how much electricity it takes to heat or cool your home, hour by hour and month to month. Long-term weather patterns are also an important factor in determining what your usage will be in the future.
Knowing what you spend your money on is important. As an SVEC member, you can rest assured that your cooperative and Seminole Electric work hard to continue to provide safe, affordable and reliable electricity to you.