At about 4:30 a.m. one frigid Monday this past December, a signal went out from Columbus that temporarily switched off electric water heaters, furnaces, heat pumps, and geothermal systems in tens of thousands of electric cooperative members’ homes around the state.
Buckeye Power, the generation and transmission cooperative that provides the electricity Ohio’s co-ops distribute to their members, can reduce costs and ease strain on the grid by cycling those appliances off and on for short periods of time when the demand for power is at its highest. More than 100,000 co-op members in Ohio volunteer to participate in the program.
