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It is essential that all faculty, employees and students on campus help us reduce our electricity consumption during Allegheny’s annual Load Drop Test, a component of our demand response program participation. The hour-long event is scheduled for next Wednesday, June 30, from 10 to 11 a.m. Allegheny College annually earns about $40,000 simply by reducing energy consumption during this hour-long test. Starting at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday, please shut down as many electrical devices as possible and leave them off until after 11 a.m. You should power down excess lighting, computers, printers, copiers, fans, air conditioners, etc. Participation by our entire community is crucial to maximize this program’s success! We rely on many people pausing their individual electric uses to add up to our significant total reduction. Plan ahead to identify a task or activity that will not require any energy consumption – take a walk, focus on some reading, or tackle that filing you’ve been putting off. Demand response programs are operated by the electric utilities to balance electric power supply by incentivizing voluntary demand reductions as an alternative to involuntary brownouts or blackouts. Demand response also balances demand as an alternative to increasing supply (and greenhouse gas emissions) by powering up temporary power plants or constructing new power plants simply to meet peak demands. Please contact the Physical Plant Department (Ext. 5378) if you have any questions.