Atlanta Gas Light Co. Utilities want to build cheap plants to meet peak demands. Sure, this strategy serves high- demand times, he said, but it also raises rates because running the peak plants a lot siphons away natural gas from residential users. A cool summer and mild winter will ease this. The complexities of selling energy Electricity is a product like any other. Just as the case is with shoes, shirts, cars, chickens, or anything else made for sale, electricity has to be created.
Utilities manufacture electricity.
They can't just reap from a field like picking onions or netting shrimp. While natural gas, coal and fuel oil can be stored once mined, making it possible to match supply with demand, electricity is fleeting. It has a shelf life of nearly zero. Since demand is not constant, throughout the day, utility officials must cope with the prospect of shortages, blackouts, brownouts and rates pushed up by increasing fuel costs. Savannah Electric officials try to balance their utility's generation among various sources.