Beating the Peak
Release Date: 27 June 2007
Market research into the recent ‘Beat the Peak' advertising campaign found the campaign was successful in encouraging people to use electricity wisely.
The State Government supported campaign encouraged people to reduce electricity use during the summer peak period, between 3pm and 6pm.
Western Power’s Managing Director, Mr Doug Aberle, said that the advertisements appeared to strike a chord with people wanting to know how they could be more efficient electricity users.
“Nearly a third of people surveyed after the campaign reported changing their electricity use patterns as a result of the ads”, he said.
The campaign, overseen by Western Power with the support of the Office of Energy, Synergy and Verve Energy, is similar to campaigns run in South Australia, Europe and across North America.
“A primary driver for the campaign was WA’s increasingly high peaks of electricity use.
“Although the amount of electricity being consumed in WA is increasing with population growth and with new businesses and industry connecting to the system, there is also an increasing pattern of short high peak use occurring.
“This is directly linked to the rapid rise in air conditioning and it means that the electricity system is building infrastructure to provide for a few very short times of peak electricity use.
“The question is do we as a community want to keep driving infrastructure investment, which impacts upon our environment, or make a few simple changes to our energy use patterns?
“This is a global issue. As a community, if we want to build less electrical infrastructure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions than we need to use energy more efficiently, for example, by setting air conditioners to 24 degrees or above.
“The Beat the Peak campaign is just one type of approach to energy efficiency and I am really pleased to see, that when given the opportunity to make changes to electricity use patterns, Western Australians have really risen to the challenge.
“The market research found 83 per cent of the surveyed population recalled the messages in the campaign, and 29 per cent said that seeing the campaign changed the way they used energy in their home between 3 and 6pm.
“This is a remarkable achievement for a campaign that is only in its first year,” Mr Aberle said.
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