Energy company locks Colorado moms thermostat during scorching heat wave not safe
An energy company is facing serious heat after a Colorado mom revealed that she was unable to lower her thermostat during a week of record-high temperatures.Kyri Baker, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, told NBC affiliate 9 News that she attempted to turn down her home thermostat from an uncomfortable 79 degrees to a less hellish 75, only to receive a message from Xcel Energy informing her that the power grid was too taxed to accommodate the decrease.“I just wanted to set it to 75, something very reasonable so my daughter could fall asleep,” she explained.When Baker tried to lower her thermostat, she received the following message: ‘To conserve energy in your community due to stress on the regional energy grid, you cannot set your temperature to be lower.’ Baker’s experience coincided with an extreme heat wave in Colorado where temperatures reached 100 degrees on Saturday and remained in the 90s across parts of the Centennial State on Monday and Tuesday.Baker had previously opted into Xcel’s Saver’s Switch program, which credits customers $40 per month in exchange for permitting the company to control their temperatures and automatically cycle out air conditioning during peak heat to conserve power grid capacity.Xcel Energy explains on its website that the Saver’s Switch program activates on a few summer days per year, and functions by turning air conditioning off for 15-20-minute intervals while maintaining fan operation.
“Most customers don’t even notice when Saver’s Switch is activated.On control days, Saver’s Switch is typically activated between 2 p.m.
and 7 p.m,” they argued. Though Baker voluntarily enrolled in the program to offset her carbon footprint during periods of high demand, she was unaware she would not be able to adjust her thermostat.“It was kind of annoying.
I’m doing my part to help the grid, and I’m getting penalized for it in some way.”She believes the restriction creates pote...