182 Green Computing
energy for your own use. (And don’t worry about crowding others out of the
pool; this kind of effort encourages all utilities to invest in reducing the carbon
footprint of the power they provide.)
Paradoxically, you can also enter into agreements to shut down some opera-
tions when demand peaks. It may sound radical, but reducing operations on
two or three of the hottest days of the year can be a very big contribution. And
imagine how happy your employees would be if you gave many of them an
occasional day off when the weather was hottest—almost always in summer,
when their kids are out of school as well.
These peak-time reductions are a huge savings for power companies, because
they can avoid building power plants that would ...