Date:                January 23, 2003

Subject:             Sawnee EMC Announces Energy Savings

Contact:             Cindy King, External Affairs, Sawnee EMC

Sawnee EMC takes great pride in helping their over 110,000 members save electricity and lower the electricity bill at their homes and businesses.  Each day, Sawnee representatives perform energy audits and give advice on insulation, fluorescent lighting, and many other ways to save energy.   Recently, they followed their own advice.

Realizing that the Sawnee headquarters facility bore some inefficiencies, the decision was made to identify those problems and take action.  This spring, Sawnee performed an energy audit at its headquarters building located at 543 Atlanta Highway in Cumming. 

In an effort to reduce the enormous lighting load in the building, all of the 40-watt fluorescent lamps were replaced with 34-watt lamps; many of the 4-lamp fixtures were changed to 2-lamp fixtures; and in areas that are unoccupied, motion-sensing switches were installed to keep lights off when offices are vacant.

To save energy on the air conditioning load, temperature settings were raised slightly and programmable thermostats were utilized to lessen run time of air conditioning systems during non-working hours.

Even though the summer of 2002 was much hotter than the summer of 2001, having four times as many days over 90 degrees, the headquarters building used less electricity.  The total kilowatt-hours consumed for the months of June, July, and August in 2002 were approximately one percent less than during the same period in 2001.

About Sawnee EMC

Sawnee is an electric distribution utility headquartered in Cumming, Georgia.  Sawnee serves over 118,000 consumers/members throughout an ever-growing distribution system of over 7,000 miles of facilities located in seven (7) counties in northern Georgia.  Sawnee has assets of over $282 million and annual sales of electric energy exceeding $161 million.  With a dedicated and knowledgeable staff of over 280 professionals, Sawnee is meeting the needs of its members/owners which rank it as the tenth (10^th) largest cooperative in the nation and one of the fastest growing.  Sawnee EMC, “we’re more than electricity, we’re service”.