Dear LIPAedge Participant,

We wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for joining the LIPAedge Program and to review a few items regarding the overall program and your participation in it.

Last summer 20,000 participants in the LIPAedge Program helped LIPA save 20 MW of electricity on three occasions during the hours in which LIPA had the greatest need. These 20 MW equated to half of a small generating facility. We should have over 25,000 customers participating in LIPAedge this summer, which equates to over 25 MW of electricity.

Under the LIPAedge Program, during the period of June through September, and daily hours of 2 PM to 6 PM, LIPA may, during an exceptionally high peak demand day, adjust the operation of your central air conditioner&rsquos compressor. This can be done by either increasing the set point on your LIPAedge thermostat by 3 to 4 degrees, or by cycling your compressor off for a portion of each hour. Additionally, as noted in the program literature, LIPA&rsquos use of this program is limited to no more than SEVEN times over the full FOUR month &ndash 2003 summer season.

Based on market research we conducted with last year’s participants we found some confusion regarding the issue of the LIPA curtailment (control of thermostat) and the override function. When LIPA is running a curtailment event, the message “CURTAILMENT” will appear on your thermostat’s display, and the clock will be counting down telling you how much time is left for the curtailment. Overrides of the curtailment occur when you adjust the temperature on your thermostat downward during the curtailment event. To avoid accidentally overriding a curtailment event between the hours of 2 PM and 6 PM, you should look at the display on the thermostat before you adjust the temperature setting. To do this, simply touch one of the white outside buttons once to turn on the light and then look at the temperature readings. When we have a power emergency and need to reduce your air conditioner use, we urge you to do your best NOT TO OVERRIDE our curtailment settings. When you override the settings you have effectively defeated the purpose of the program. We understand that there can be unique circumstances that force you to override the curtailment, which is why we have built in this feature to the program. Remember that once the curtailment period is over the thermostat will automatically return to its previous settings.

Please help to make the program successful by allowing us to reduce electric demand when we have no other options. Over the long run, programs such as this can help us to avoid building more power plants and keep our Long Island environment cleaner. Additionally, LIPA has a number of other conservation programs that may be of interest to you. Please feel free to contact the Energy Conservation Hotline at 1-800-692-2626 or the LIPAedge help line at 1-866-LIPAEDGE (1-866-547-2334). We also invite you to visit the LIPA Web site at www.lipower.org for information regarding this and any of our other programs.

I thank you again for your support.


Sincerely,



Richard M. Kessel
Chairman
Long Island Power Authority


P.S.: One other question that has recently been asked is how to begin using the CAC system at the beginning of the cooling season. After you have your system prepared for the new cooling season and you are ready to begin using your CAC, you need to check the “MODE” button on your thermostat. If the “MODE” is on OFF, the entire system has been turned off. Simply press the MODE button until you see the word “COOL” displayed on the thermostat. You are now ready to use your CAC System.


  Back to Top