August and September are typically the hottest months on the Stanford campus. As the temperature rises, so does demand on the university’s electrical infrastructure.

“Elevated temperatures drive higher cooling loads, which can significantly increase the demand on the power transmission lines that serve our campus. During these seasonal peaks, targeted power reduction efforts are critical to maintaining system integrity,” said Cody Hill, director for safety resilience and emergency response in the Department of Sustainability, Utilities & Infrastructure (SUI).

Stanford’s Power Smart initiative includes a tiered alert program based on the weather forecast and projected demand on Stanford’s power system. On weekdays forecasted to reach or exceed 90 degrees, SUI recommends reducing electricity use during the peak hours from noon to 8 p.m.

Power Smart alerts are intended to galvanize the campus community to engage in conservation best practices:

• do laundry and charge vehicles outside the peak hours from noon to 8 p.m.
• adjust thermostats to 78 degrees or higher
• shut the sash on lab fume hoods
• safely ramp down equipment that requires high electric loads

As part of the initiative, students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to identify equipment or systems in their buildings that require high electric loads and implement measures to run them during off-peak hours. Participants will be eligible for rewards such as campus bookstore and cafe gift cards. For more information, visit the Power Smart site.

Power Smart is expected to be an ongoing effort that will support electrical conservation and capacity for the future. The university is working with utility partners to update and expand the campus transmission line to account for the institution’s growing needs due to hotter weather, campus growth, and increasing electrification.

Interested community members can see campus’ daily power use via a live dashboard. The goal is for the campus electrical load to stay in the green zone below 80% capacity, a standard from the National Electrical Safety Code.

The Power Smart initiative also includes a curtailment plan. If the collective load exceeds safe capacity thresholds, curtailment of electrical service to designated buildings will be implemented in order to safeguard critical utilities in research and medical buildings and stabilize the overall power supply. “We know that an electrical curtailment from an extreme heat event would be incredibly disruptive to the impacted buildings, said Hill, “which is why we are urging everyone to participate in being ‘power smart’ on hot days.”