(The Center Square) – The Tennessee Valley Authority reached a record high power demand of 34,526 megawatts Wednesday morning, the energy provider said.
That energy demand came as TVA’s system area had an average temperature of 4 degrees.
TVA is the largest public power corporation in the country, generating 90% of the Tennessee’s electric generating capacity and three-fifths of its power plants. It is federally owned and serves 10 million by providing electricity to 153 local power companies.
The previous record demand was 33,482 megawatts in August 2007.
“Extremely cold temperatures across the region continue to drive up the demand for electricity,” TVA wrote on social media. “The TVA electric grid is stable, and our generating facilities are performing well.”
TVA Chief Executive Officer Jeff Lyash recorded a message Tuesday asking TVA users to conserve electricity where they could between 6-10 a.m. CT on Wednesday, holding off using larger appliances and turning heat down a few degrees where possible.
The peak demand comes just more than a year after the company had its first rolling blackouts around Christmas 2022 after temperatures dropped by 40 degrees in a matter of hours accompanied by gale force winds.
TVA later produced a report on the incident that showed the blackouts had a $170 million impact due to increased fuel and purchased power costs, costs of repair and hardening of assets and lost revenue as local power companies and direct customers reduced power use.
Average residential customers saw an increase of around $5.20 in February 2023 due to the December storm issues.
