How much more air conditioning was required in September? 42% more than September 2025. Following an August that required 37% more air conditioning than the previous year, many members saw new billing benchmarks set between August and October.

This was not just a local trend. On Oct. 6, the US Energy Information Administration released its Short-Term Energy Outlook. Power demand is projected to rise from a record 4,195 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in ​2025 to 4,288 billion kWh in 2026 and 4,356 billion kWh in 2027.

Not surprisingly, the EIA forecasts an 11% increase in wholesale electricity prices for year-end 2026 over 2025 due to growing demand during peak periods. The summer heat wave contributed significantly to both higher demand and expenses.

Those pricing pressures are why Tideland redesigned the residential time-of-use rate. While we will always promote conservation and energy efficiency, the current utility landscape substantially penalizes energy use during peak hours. That empowers us to offer deeply discounted kWh rates during the 90% of the hours in a year that are off-peak while punatively pricing on-peak energy. If you can make this energy use strategy work for your household time-of-use could insulate you from these industrywide rate increases. What better time to give the rate a trial run than now when there are only two on-peak hours: 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. (Oct. 16 – April 15). The member portal will provide you with the feedback you need to gauge your potential success.

Behind the scenes, NC Electric Membership Corporation is successfully employing peak reduction strategies that include off-peak energy storage for discharge during on-peak hours. Three of those energy storage facilities are hosted by Tideland along with a peaking plant at Ocracoke. All co-op members share in those resulting savings.