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High energy demands during heat wave

The Southwest Power Pool says their service territory set a new record for electricity use on Monday when energy demand peaked at more than 56,000 mega watts.

ARKANSAS, USA — The extreme temperatures being experienced around the country have an impact on much more than you may think. Our regional electric grid authority is now working under conservative operations and has issued resource advisory alerts.

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP)says their service territory set a new record for electricity use on Aug. 21 when energy demand peaked at more than 56,000 megawatts.

“It represents an increase of about 5.5% over our all-time peak record that we established last year, so tremendous growth. Compared to two years ago, it represents about a 10% increase,” said Lanny Nickell, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for SPP. 

Nickell says the grid is performing very well, despite the extreme heat across their 14-state region. He says the conservative operations they’ve issued just mean all generating resources need to be made available.

“We need to make sure that we are in a position of deploying every resource we have, so that we don't have to ask consumers to begin to conserve their consumption. And so that we don't have to begin to take even more extreme actions,” Nickell said.

Carroll Electric is encouraging their members to voluntarily conserve electricity, especially between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. when electricity demand is generally at its highest peak, Vice President of Corporate Relations, Cory Smith says.

“We were hoping that that request would help alleviate some of the current strain that's being placed on the regional electric grid. And then to make our consumers aware of what conditions might exist, if the situation actually worsens throughout the week,” said Smith.

Carroll Electric is asking customers to avoid using larger appliances like washers and dryers during those hours and to try to turn their thermostats down a few degrees.

“We can't say for certain whether we would have to initiate rotating service interruptions. Right now, we just want our members to be aware that if the condition worsens, that is a possibility,” Smith said.

We reached out to Ozarks Electric, SWEPCO and O,G & E, all who say they are not asking customers to conserve energy at this time. But they say simple things like keeping the blinds closed during the day and turning off lights and fans when not in the room can help.

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