Frigid temps cause soaring electric demand

Jan. 7– Plunging temperatures across the Tennessee Valley region have caused the highest demand for electricity so far this winter.

This is the first significant demand period we’ve seen this season," said TVA Vice President of Transmission and Reliability Bob Dalrymple.

TVA met a demand of more than 31,300 megawatts on the morning of Jan. 6. Demand is expected to remain high through Monday, Jan. 11.

The TVA system has a winter capacity of more than 36,000 megawatts of available power and at least 5,000 megawatts of additional reserve power daily.

The all-time record winter demand was set on Jan. 16, 2009, at 32,572 megawatts when temperatures across the Tennessee Valley region averaged 9 degrees. The all-time record demand on the TVA power system was 33,482 megawatts on Aug. 16, 2007, when temperatures averaged 102 degrees.

TVA provides power to large industries and 157 power distributors that serve approximately 9 million consumers in seven southeastern states.