While seeking respite from the heat and humidity, I lay, as still as possible, under the ceiling fan languishing and thinking. Well, debating more than thinking. I was debating (with myself) the merits of not turning on the central air conditioning for the fourth consecutive day of intense temperatures. The debate actually started as self-congratulations. Yep. I was feeling pretty pleased that I had resisted the urge to flip the central air switch; that in striving to do my part for sustainability, I was capable of making do with an electric fan. An electric fan. Oh. Though I was not taxing the electric grid by using an energy hog like a central air-conditioner, I was still consuming. And then the power went out, albeit momentarily, long enough to cut power to the fan and to have to reset the digital clocks.

And so began the debate.

In that brief moment of midnight powerlessness, panicky thoughts about how to deal with the heat flooded my head. Hand held paper fan? Not a very good option it turns out when trying to sleep. How about the constantly cool basement? Fine, if it’s a finished basement. However, if it’s century-old spider central — no thanks, I’m not willing to compromise quite to that degree.  And then the light bulb went on. (Literally.  The fan resumed too when the power came back online.) I realized that all of these options require compromise. Like Jimmy Carter turtle necks of the 70’s. There must be an alternative, because compromise is not bankable. A person does not receive credits for every minute they wilt in the heat while resisting to turn on the central air. It’s not like by holding off on using an air-conditioner for a certain number of days, one can cash in their indulgences and crank it up to full strength on the hottest day during peak demand without consequence. As a matter of fact, the power most likely went out, albeit momentarily, due to the increased demand of all the residential air conditioners in use by people trying to get a good night’s rest. Exactly the pursuit I should have been engaged in.

It turns out there is an alternative. A low-cost grid capacity solution:  Permanent Distributed Load Reduction (PDLR). A simple concept with far-reaching effects, PDLR is achieved by deploying energy-efficient and/or direct renewable technologies at the point of use. This integrated customer-sited application permanently reduces the need to generate, transmit and distribute electricity, thereby freeing up capacity on the strained electric grid and alleviating the need for costly infrastructure improvements.  Without Compromise. Best of all, the technology to realize permanent distributed load reduction already exists in the form of industrial and commercial lighting, wireless controls and direct renewable systems. Based on current statistics, PDLR has the potential to deliver 81,000 megawatts of capacity to the grid (the equivalent of more than 160 power plants).

And armed with the knowledge of the transformative potential of PDLR, I drifted off into peaceful slumber. Zzzzzzzzzzz.

With soaring temperatures in the form of a persistent heat wave, demand pushing into record levels, and an aging electricity

New York City, shown here, was one of the many areas of the East Coast affected by the 2003 blackout.

infrastructure struggling to deliver and to supply the power where it is needed, our current situation seems like a recipe for disaster.

One cannot but help think back to the 2003 East Cost Blackout, where are devastating cascading power failure crippled much of the Eastern seaboard. Moreover, this failure was caused in the end by failures in our electricity infrastructure. These failures seem to be rearing their ugly heads again, as this current heat wave progresses across the country.

Cannot believe this is happening?

Consider that in Toronto on Monday, July 5th, 2010, a blackout left more than 200,000 people without power as a fire in a transformer crippled the grid. It should be noted that while it has been determined that rising demand was not directly responsible for the transformer fire and subsequent grid failure, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, the utility that delivers electricity to the Greater Toronto Area, did note that “realistically, heat waves are tough on any grid.”

For more evidence, consider that New York’s Con Edison is projecting that they will break the four-year-old peak demand record sometime this week.

Or Pennsylvania, where utility spokespersons are calling on state residents to conserve energy to prevent grid failures that will result in blackouts.

Or New Jersey, where a failure of the Jersey Central Power and Light system failure left nearly 17,000 customers without power Monday afternoon — although it was not clear whether increased demand from the heat wave can be fully blamed for this failure.

Clearly, we need to develop solutions to help reduce the strain on our aging electricity infrastructure. These solutions encompass both our homes and our places of work. At home, we need to find ways to conserve electricity. Some of our most desired conveniences like dishwashers, big-screen televisions, and air-conditioners are some of our largest consumers of electricity. Yet, with some fairly simple changes, we can reduce the strain that our homes put on the electricity grid during this heat index crisis. For example, by simply washing your dishes later in the evening or earlier in the morning, before the early afternoon-evening period, you can reduce the strain on the grid.

Furthermore, with temperatures pushing into the triple digits, the question becomes whether our bodies can even distinguish the difference between setting our thermostats at 72 degrees rather than 68 degrees — such a change will not only reduce the strain on the electric grid from your home, it will also reduce the strain on your electric bill.

For businesses, seeking opportunities to reduce energy consumption can significantly reduce strain on the electric grid. In this waning economy, many companies have sought energy efficiencies simply to reduce costs, but the measure also reduces our overall energy consumption. For example, replacing existing lighting technology with high-efficiency models can yield reductions in electricity consumption up to 50 percent of current lighting usage, while maintaining or improving current illumination levels.

Furthermore, many companies have deployed control systems that allow them to operate their buildings in more efficient manners. These systems can help to ensure that only the required areas of buildings are consuming electricity, rather having it consumed by unused or non-essential areas of the facility. Optimizing our consumption of electricity will reduce our overall demand, which, in turn, will lower the contribution to the strain on the grid.

Finally, businesses need to look to new ways they can take themselves off the grid during peak periods when the strain on the grid is greatest — whether through photovoltaic or the use of direct renewable technologies. Solar PV systems allow companies to use the sun to supply a portion of their own energy, which reduces their contribution to and the overall strain on the grid.

Direct renewable technologies allow companies to harness the power of direct renewable resource, like solar radiation, to complete essential building functions like illumination or water heating without the transformative losses associated with PV generation. By using direct renewable energy to reduce system consumption, a company’s impact on electricity infrastructure is also lessened.

In heat waves, such as the one affecting the East Coast this week, it becomes clear we must address on contributions to the strain on our electricity system, or continue to hold our breath, hoping another catastrophic failure will not occur as the mercury — and the demand for power — rises.

As Easter approaches this weekend, many minds both young and old are turning to one of the holiday’s quintessential traditions — the Easter Egg Hunt.  For many businesses, finding new ways to decrease costs or increase productivity in these current economic conditions can seem like trying to find a well-hidden egg or two.

The reality, however, is that energy savings are available throughout many of our buildings. As Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu noted earlier this month, “improving the efficiency of buildings, which account for 40 percent of U.S. Energy use, is truly low hanging fruit.” At Orion, we have spent more than 10 years helping our customers locate and capture the energy-saving opportunities in their facilities. Moreover, when companies become more efficient users of energy — i.e. they use less energy to produce the same amount of product — by definition they are becoming more productive. Business productivity, as always, will be one of the leading engines that will eventually drive our economic back to full health.

Yet, where are these energy savings hiding in our facilities — many companies may ask. The first, and easiest answer, is to look up. If your facility is still using antiquated high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting to illuminate your facility (you’ll know by the yellow or orange hue to the light), then you have significant savings to be captured. Traditional HID lighting systems turn 40 percent to 50 percent of the electricity they consume into heat, which is dissipated into your facility, and additional energy is lost to vibration (which is the cause of the audible hum that may be associated with your lighting system). In the end, approximately 40 percent to 50 percent of the electricity received by a traditional HID light fixture is actually transformed into usable light, the quality of which decrease dramatically over time.

On the other hand, high-intensity fluorescent fixtures, like those manufactured by Orion, loses only 7 percent of the electricity they consume to heat or vibration, delivering over 90 percent of the electricity employed to facility floor as lighting. This efficient use of electricity allows Orion HIF fixtures to provide equal or greater light quantity and quality with significant less electricity usage. In fact, in many of Orion’s project experiences, the company has been able to provide its customers nearly 50 percent more light while using approximately 50 percent less energy.

Additionally, Orion Energy Systems has developed a wide range of control technologies that allow customers to further fine tune their use of electricity to their use of their facilities. These technologies, which include motion, occupancy and ambient control solutions, allow companies to increase energy savings by ensuring that electric lights only operate when there are people working under them and the artificial light is required for the worker to be productive in the space.

These are just a few of the energy saving ideas that firms can use to capture the significant “hidden” savings that come from improving a facility’s energy use and productivity. In fact, as Secretary Chu said about energy efficiency opportunities, earlier this month, “there are indeed $20 bills lying on the ground all around us.” And who wouldn’t want to find of a few of those in our baskets on Sunday morning?