For Immediate Release
August 24, 2006
Open Store Doors Waste Energy & Raise Costs for All Electric Users:
Kessel LIPA Survey Shows Up to 65% of Store Doors Open in South Fork Villages
Customers Should Tell Shop Owners to Stop Wasting Money & Energy
Southampton, NY – August 24, 2006 – Some retail shops in the Hamptons, and other locations around Long Island, are wasting as much as 20 to 25 percent of the electricity they consume by keeping their doors open with air-conditioned cool air spilling out on to the sidewalks in front of their stores.
According to a recent field survey conducted by the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), as many as 65% of the retail stores in East Hampton village and 56% of the stores Southampton village had their doors open on days when the temperatures on the Island ran into the low 80s. In other locations around the Island, fewer stores in Great Neck and
Huntington villages and the Woodbury area left doors wide open as air conditioners pumped cool air outside.
With energy demand across Long Island soaring to record levels, LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel said that open doors on retail stores is a waste of energy and other resources that Long Island can ill afford. He called on customers to complain to management when they enter a store with the AC on and the door open.
“It’s a tactic that may get a few extra customers into a store, but it’s a total waste of energy that requires LIPA’s customers to pay for system improvements and energy supplies needed to keep up with the ever-growing demand for electricity, especially on the East End,” said LIPA Chairman Richard M. Kessel . “We estimate that stores that allow air conditioned air to escape by leaving doors open waste about 20 to 25% of the electricity they consume. That’s a waste of electricity, money, and infrastructure resources.”
“Needlessly wasting energy is like littering: it unnecessarily puts pollutants into the air and our environment. But it’s even worse, because these pollutants harm our health and cause global warming and climate change,” said Gordian Raacke, Executive Director of Bridgehampton-based Renewable Energy Long Island (RELI). “When it comes to solving our energy problems, everyone can do something and the least we can do is to stop wasteful energy use at our homes and workplaces.”
Mr. Kessel noted that over the last eight years, peak summer demand on the South Fork has increased an astounding 101% from 117 megawatts (MW) in 1998 to this year’s new record of 236 MWs, which was set on August 3rd. To deliver that increased amount of electricity, LIPA has invested over $90 million for new transmission lines, substations and substation upgrades on the South Fork since 1999, and an additional $32.5 million in upgrades are scheduled for 2007 and 2008.
“Keeping up with growing demand requires LIPA to secure new sources of supply,” said Mr. Kessel. “It also requires significant upgrades to the transmission and distribution system on the South Fork to be able to deliver record amounts of electricity safely and reliably during peak summer demand periods, especially during periods of extreme heat when everyone wants to blast their air conditioners.
“Squandering electricity by leaving store doors open is a huge waste of resources that all ratepayers pay for,” said Mr. Kessel. “It can even cause higher power plant and peaking unit emissions on days when air quality can be compromised by high heat and humidity.”
While urging stores to close their doors when running their air conditioners, especially during the last two weeks of summer, Mr. Kessel said that LIPA will launch a public awareness campaign in time for next summer entitled: “Be Cool – Keep it Closed.”
“Customers should ask the stores to close their doors,” said Mr. Kessel. “What good does it do to worry about such issues as air quality, global warming and high energy prices when one is scooting in an out of stores that waste 20 to 25 percent of the electricity they use?
“The message from customers should be: Be Cool – Keep it Closed,” said Mr. Kessel.
LIPA, a non-profit municipal electric utility, owns the retail electric system on Long Island and provides electric service to over 1.1 million customers in Nassau and Suffolk counties, and the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. LIPA does not own any on-island electric generation assets, and it does not provide natural gas service. More information about LIPA and its programs can be found at www.lipower.org.
Survey results and accompanying graphics can be found online at http://www.lipower.org/newscenter/pr/2006/082406_survey.html
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LIPA Contact Information:
Media Relations: (516) 719-9892
Media Pager: (516) 525-LIPA
media.relations@lipower.org
LIPA News Center
http://www.lipower.org/newscenter
