Alaska Electric Light and Power recorded a drop in electricity usage of nearly 40 percent between mid-April, when the avalanche took place, and the end of May.

What is our motivation to better use electricity? Answer: absolute necessity. Have you considered why many European cities are more advanced than the US in this sustainability movement? Again, absolute necessity as many European countries charge by the peak demand.  Europeans have to select how much electrical power they will use.  The rates increase dramatically going from 3kw to 5kw peak demand.  Considering most dryers use 5kw, it’s no wonder Europeans prefer the solar dryer (the clothesline).  We can see some similarities in the Alaskan lifestyle.

While living within the breathtaking landscape, South East Alaskan citizens are encouraged to use innovative technologies and make adjustment to their own energy behavior to help the region live within the capabilities of their existing hydroelectric power plant capacities or risk paying exorbitantly high electrical rates from electricity created by diesel power generators.

Juneau, Alaska got a wake up call regarding just how crucial it’s inexpensive hydroelectric power was when an avalanche rendered it unavailable in April 2008.   Overnight, Juneau’s 30,000 residents saw their electrical bills increase by a factor of 5 as the town had to rely on it’s back up diesel generator’s to create the power that it needed.  This scene is replayed throughout communities in Southeast Alaska every winter as electrical power companies have to supplement the power to their customers.  The hydroelectric plants lose some capability because of freezing water flow just at the time when the residents need for electricity increases due to the much shorter daylight hours.

It was amazing that Juneau’s 30,000 residents were able to decrease their energy consumption by 40% in just two weeks (http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2008/06/18/powering-down-in-juneau/).  And there was nothing “virtuous” about their actions.  It was all economics.   Many of Southeast Alaska residents make the lionshare of their income from May to September and primarily live off their earnings the remainder of the year.  Come April, their bank accounts are pretty lean.   They certainly felt a 5x increase in their electric bills far more acutely than they would have had it happened another time of the year.   They were able to decrease their electrical use by things we have all been admonished to do - but most of us just never really take it that seriously.  When an electric bill most often represents less than 5% of an average wage earner’s  monthly take home pay, and that is with no conservation measures, where is the incentive to really save?   Jump that to 25% of a person’s monthly take home pay, and there are plenty of reasons to conserve.

And conserve they did - Juneau was able to reduce it’s electrical usage by 40%.  They took the standard measures of unplugging electronics when not in use, converting to compact fluorescent bulbs, better insulating their hot water heaters and using less hot water.   But the town also realized that they were wasting a tremendous amount of electricity in the pumps to move water - for purification, delivery, sewage treatment.   By encouraging people to conserve water, they actually made substantial reductions in the town electricity required.

This was not a public service announcement campaign.  Each and every citizen of Juneau was incentivized to use less energy because the cost of creating it had become more than what they were willing to pay.   Basic supply and demand economics at work.