SOUTH JORDAN — When temperatures soar, Rocky Mountain Power is hoping its customers turn up their air conditioning thermostats and turn off all unnecessary lights.

On Tuesday, the Salt Lake-based utility, which provides electricity to about 75 percent of Utah's residential and business customers, launched its annual conservation campaign known as PowerForward.

Now in its seventh year, the PowerForward campaign operates on a color-coded alert system, based on daily temperatures and electricity demand.

Green power days indicate normal conditions. Yellow power days call for extra conservation during the hours of noon to 8 p.m. On yellow alert days, customers are urged to set their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, cook food on outdoor grills instead of in electric ovens and run clothes dryers and dishwashers after 8 p.m.

Red power days indicate a critical situation, with possible outages.

"Our population is growing at a record pace," said Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert. "That growth puts pressure on everything ... certainly on our energy usage. As we look to the future, we understand that conservation and wise utilization of our energy resources is really a significant issue that we need to deal with starting now."

PowerForward is a voluntary program, but savings on yellow power alert days historically have amounted to 60 to 100 megawatts of electricity, enough power for 30,000 to 50,000 homes.

Peak electricity demand in Utah occurs during the summer months, when residences crank up central air conditioners, which account for 30 percent of a household's total electrical usage, according to Rocky Mountain Power. Central air conditioners use more electricity than the combined electrical usage of a home's lights, dryer, washer and dishwasher.

"In Utah, because the energy usage is growing around 2 percent and the peak demand is growing at 5 percent, it is becoming more and more difficult," said Carol Hunter, vice president at Rocky Mountain Power. "During our peak period of time, which starts very early in the afternoon and runs until fairly late in the evening, we would like to see the customers switch their usage — do your dishes during the nighttime hours if you can and wash your clothes. Increase the setting on your air conditioning thermostat up just a couple of degrees."

The PowerForward campaign runs from June 1 through Sept. 15. It is a public-private program sponsored by the Department of Environmental Quality and Utah's electric utilities.

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