CELEBRATING A 90-YEAR VISION Jafar TaghaviChief Executive Officer

1925 201590

P e n i n s u l a L i g h t C o m p a n y N e w s l e t t e r

HOLIDAY CLOSURES:

Supervising Editor: Jonathan White 253.857.1514 newsletter@penlight.org | Produced by Peninsula Light Company

is published monthly by

www.penlight.org

253.857.5950

DON’T FORGET THOSE HIDDEN NUMBERS!

Every month, 5 randomly chosen account numbers are hidden in Lights. If

you spot yours, call Cathy at 253.857.1525 and receive

a $50 credit on your next bill.

I N S I D E :

Try Going Ductless!

What Happens When Your Lights Go Out?

PenLight Achieves Two-Year Conservation Target

Keep Your Distance From Downed Power Lines

Help Your Neighbors - Donate to Project HELP

UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS

Community CALENDARE V E N T S

January 1 - New Year’s DayFebruary 15 - Presidents Day

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OUTAGES: NOV 15–DEC 15*

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* Of note this month, the Nov. 17 wind storm a�ected 25,181 members with 25 di�erent events. All power was restored in under 20 hours.

OUTAGES BY CAUSE

PENLIGHT OFFICE: 13315 GOOdNOuGH dr NW | GIG HarbOr, Wa 98332

PIEr INTO THE NIGHT – SaTurday, FEb. 6, 5PmJoin Harbor WildWatch - without getting wet - and discover unique Puget Sound animals that come out at night. Experience touch tanks, underwater lights and a live video stream from SCUBA divers under Jerisich Dock at Skansie Brothers Park, 3207 Harborview Drive. Dives will be held at 5pm and 6pm. Suggested donation is $2 per person.

ST. aNTHONy auxILIary WaTErSIdE bruNCH – SaTurday, FEb. 6, 9:30amThe seventh annual St. Anthony Hospital Auxiliary Waterside Brunch will be held from 9:30am to 1:30pm at Anthony’s Restaurant, 8827 N. Harborview Drive in Gig Harbor. Proceeds from the silent and live auctions will benefit equipment and services to meet future hospital needs. Tickets are $50. For more information, call 253.851.4967.

HarbOr WINdS CONCErT – SaTurday, FEb. 6, 6:30PmThe Narrows Music Society’s concert for Harbor Winds will take place at Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, 7700 Skansie Ave., Gig Harbor. A variety of music, under the direction of Eric Swanson, the director of bands at Gig Harbor High School, will be presented. Admission is free; donations are welcome. For more information, visit www.narrowsmusicsociety.org.

‘NuNSENSE’ – WEEkENdS THrOuGHOuT FEbruaryParadise Theatre, with a new location at 3114 Judson St. in Gig Harbor, will host “Nunsense” each weekend during the month of February. For showtimes or tickets, visit www.paradisetheatre.org.

EmPTy bOWLS FuNdraISEr – SaTurday, FEb. 20, 11amEmpty Bowls is an international project to fight hunger. As many as 2,200 school-age children who qualify for free or reduced lunches in the Peninsula School District are at risk of having no lunches during the summer months. Altrusa Gig Harbor’s Empty Bowls event will raise funds to provide Food Scholarships through the Boys and Girls Club. A simple dinner of soup and bread provided by area restaurants will be served in pottery bowls donated by local artisans from 11am to 3pm on Feb. 20 at the B&G Club, 8502 Skansie Ave. Find more information at www.altrusagigharbor.org.

Peninsula Light Co. was officially incorporated as a mutual electric cooperative at 9:03 a.m. on July 14, 1925, marking the beginning of the sixth-oldest electric cooperative in the nation. Our community members didn’t have an inkling as to what challenges lay in front of them as they started their journey to bring power to the peninsulas, but they had a vision: To improve the quality of life of their communities. It didn’t take long for that vision to have an impact. In December 1926, just before Christmas, we energized our distribution system,

and lights came on in area homes and businesses for the first time.

Someone recently said electricity was meant more for chickens than it was for people during that time because the egg industry was one of the main sources of economic development along with fishing and timber. Prior to electricity, chicken farmers used candles to determine which eggs were fertile and which were safe for consumption. Electricity made that process much easier. To this day, it’s still called candling. The egg and poultry business on the peninsulas was represented by the Gig Harbor Co-operative Association. As you can see, the community already was familiar with the co-op business model.

Today, as we embrace and celebrate our 90th anniversary, we can clearly see how electricity has transformed our community and improved the quality of our lives. We have become so dependent on it, not only to power our homes but to keep us connected to the world 24/7 with our smartphones, tablets and laptops. That is why we have been working hard to improve system reliability. We not only bury power lines but we’re turning our distribution system into an intelligent network that provides real-time information. We can control our eight substations and 33 circuits from a central command center that allows us to detect and restore outages more efficiently. With the burial of our overhead lines now at 70 percent and the advancement in new technology, we have improved our reliability measurement to the top 25 percent - the first quartile - of utilities in the nation.

Many of our members have responded with positive comments and support on our social media sites during past and recent storms. Most importantly, our employees are second to none - from the linemen in the field, to the support staff in the office – when it comes to storm restoration and keeping our members informed. We have completed power restoration in record time, allowing us for the first time in recent years to send our crews to help other utilities with their outages.

We plan to continue our 90-year commitment to improving the quality of life for our members. That vision rose from a small group of community members, and it continues to manifest itself today.

From your PenLight family, have a safe and healthy new year.

3-Day BasicEmergency Kits

The Kit Contains:• 12 EmErgEncy Drinking WatEr Packs• 1 EmErgEncy FooD rations - 3 Days• 1 sPacE BlankEt• 1 “D” cEll Flashlight With BattEriEs• 1 EmErgEncy Poncho With hooD• 3 Bio hazarD Bags

• 1 roll toilEt PaPEr• 9 antimicroBial hanD WiPEs• 3 PaPEr toWEls• 1 soaP• 1 WhistlE• 3 Pair latEx glovEs• 1 n-95 rEsPirator mask

$4000plus tax from Penlight

some T ime s There ’ s noT enough To make ends mee T During the winter, many living expenses go up and often make it difficult for families who are struggling to make ends meet, let alone stay warm. We can help.

Our Project Help program is designed to help income-qualifying families with up to $200 of support each year. The program provides funds through a partnership with Key Peninsula Community Services to offset those who need assistance with their electric bill.

The economy is still hurting, and the need continues to rise. We’re looking for additional support from the community. The best part is, we will match your donations dollar for dollar.

Three ways To conTr ibuT e PenLight members can donate to help their neighbors in one of three ways:• A one-time gift • A recurring monthly donation • By rounding up your bill each month to the nearest whole dollar

The round-up campaign is the newest way members can contribute. On average, those who enroll will only add about $6 to their annual bill. Those donations can go a long way to help neighbors who sometimes have to choose between food and heat.

Our goal is to encourage 10,000 of our members – one-third of our service area – to sign up for the Project Help Round-Up campaign. You can help by visiting www.penlight.org/project-help, or by calling our Member Services department at 253.857.5950.

Progr am benef i T s About 550 Gig Harbor-area families have benefitted from an average of $110,000 through Project Help annually since 2009. No administrative costs are deducted, and all contributions are tax-deductible, so every dollar goes to help your neighbors in need.

Help your neighbors with a donation to

Project HELP

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We plan to continue our 90-year commitment to improving the quality of life for our members.

P e n i n s u l a L i g h t C o m p a n y N e w s l e t t e r JAN / FEB 2016

Looking For Efficiency? Try Going Ductless!

FOLLOW PENLIGHT FOR THE LATEST NEWS:

www.facebook.com/PenLightCowww.twitter.com/penlightco

Just like many utilities in Washington state, Peninsula Light Co. is required by state mandate to set a two-year target for energy conservation as part of a 10-year potential. We’re proud to be overachievers. Thanks to several programs that save energy in both residential and commercial sectors, PenLight nearly doubled its two-year target, achieving a savings of more than 1 average Megawatt through Nov. 1, 2015. The period ran from Jan. 1, 2014 through the end of 2015, and our target was 0.654 average Megawatts.

As established by the state’s Energy Independence Act (I-937), utilities that serve 25,000 meters or more must establish a 10-year conservation potential that can be broken down into two-year segments. We qualify because we serve about 31,600 meters. Our potential is assessed by an expert consultant. We regularly evaluate our potential and update our goals, and we work with our members to achieve them.

NE w goAL s PenLight’s Board of Directors approved a new 10-year potential and two-year target during its December meeting. Our conservation potential from 2016-25 is 2.72 average Megawatts, and our target through 2017 is to conserve 0.544 average Megawatts.

Just this year, our conservation programs saved enough energy to power about 750 average homes on the greater Gig Harbor peninsula.

how i T work s PenLight’s programs are designed to provide long-lasting energy savings through a number of techniques:

• New high-efficiency heat pump heating and cooling systems, which replace inefficient furnaces, baseboards and wall heaters.

• High-efficiency electric water heaters.

• New lighting technology for commercial buildings and schools.

• Upgrades for commercial refrigeration systems for stores and food service applications.

• Partnerships with local retail stores to stock efficient lighting and hot water-saving devices, such as showerheads.

• Distribution of “smart” power strips to reduce parasitic energy losses from equipment such as computers and home entertainment systems.

rebaT e Progr ams If you’re looking to upgrade to become more energy efficient, PenLight provides an incentive to help. For homeowners, the largest part of electricity use comes from space heating, water heating and appliances. And our commercial lighting program can help businesses with their energy usage.

PenLight Achieves Two-Year Conservation Target

WhaT happEns WhEn Your LiGhTs Go ouT?

High winds, snow or ice storms are the most common events that can cause power outages in our Pacific

Northwest environment. They can put too much stress on heavy tree limbs, blow over an entire tree or even cause an underground fault. When it affects the electricity at your home, the natural

question is, “When will I get my power back on?”

Restoring power after a major outage is a big job that involves many moving parts. Our goal is to restore power safely to the greatest

number of members in the shortest possible time.

Tr ANsmi ss ioN L iNE s Our first step to power restoration is to

ensure our transmission lines are functioning properly. These lines carry the highest voltage and supply power to one or more of our eight substations. Tens of thousands of people would be affected if this is the source of power failure.

subs TaT ions The next level of priority is our distribution substations, each of which serves thousands of members. When a major outage occurs, this is where we check first. If the problem can be corrected at this level, power may be restored to a large number of people.

feeder s or di s Tr ibuT ion c ircui T s Our main distribution lines are checked next if the problem cannot be isolated at the substation. These feeder circuits travel down the main arterial streets and provide power to business and residential neighborhoods.

sErv icE L iNE s Sometimes damage will occur on the service line between your house and the transformer on a nearby pole. That can explain why you don’t have power when your neighbor does. We need to know you have an outage here, so a service crew can repair it.

sErv icE iNs TALL AT ioN Members are responsible for damage to the service installation on a home or building. Unfortunately, we can’t fix anything beyond the point that the power connects to a building. If this is the cause of your outage, please call a licensed electrician to have it fixed.

rePorT an ouTageIf you have an outage at your home or business, follow these steps:

• check to see if your circuit panel or fuse box has tripped or blown a fuse. if it has tripped, reset the breaker.

• check with your neighbors to see if they have power.• call us at 1.877.853.1388. Be sure to follow all

directions carefully. • Turn off all household appliances, computers, televisions

and air conditioning and heating units, etc. when power is restored, turn them back on one at a time.

Keep Your Distance From DowneD power Lines

The winter storm season will continue through February, and that means we could see wind, snow, ice or other types of hazards that may affect your electric service. If you come across downed power lines, follow these steps to stay safe:

4 immediately report a downed line by calling us at 1.877.853.1388.

4 Never touch, move or go near any kind of downed or hanging line, even if it looks to be harmless. getting near it could cause a severe injury or even death.

4 Do not use objects to move power lines.

4 Do not try to move tree limbs that are on or near a power line. Anything that touches a downed line may be dangerous.

4 if you see someone who has been shocked and is in direct or indirect contact with a downed power line, do not touch them. Efforts to move an electric-shock victim could make you a second victim.

4 if a power line falls on a car, stay inside your vehicle. Under the circumstances, it’s the safest place to be.

4 The only time you should consider leaving a car that is in contact with a downed power line is if your vehicle catches on fire. if that happens, open the door but do not step out. make sure you jump completely free of the vehicle with both feet together to avoid contact with the car (metal) and the ground at the same time. Hop as far away as possible from the vehicle and keep both your feet together.

For more information about these programs, visit www.penlight.org.

The winter months are here, and that means you’re likely using more electricity to heat your home. Have you considered going ductless?

A ductless heat pump is a highly efficient unit that can be easily installed as a primary heat source for electrically heated homes. The units are an upgrade over electric furnaces, baseboards and wall heaters because they can heat and cool homes at a fraction of the cost.

somE of THE BENEf i T s iNcLUDE :

4 They don’t require duct work, which eliminates maintenance or worry about duct leakage.

4 Ductless systems use 25-50 percent less energy to heat a home.

4 Ultra-quiet fans evenly circulate air throughout rooms, eliminating hot and cold spots.

4 systems come standard with air conditioning to keep a home cool during hot summer months.

4 installation is quick, simple and inexpensive compared to other HvAc systems, and that means little to no disruption to a home.

PenLight offers a $1,000 rebate for installing a qualified ductless heat pump where there is permanent electric heat.

S A V E M O N E Y

GOGREEN

for more information, visit www.goingductless.com.

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