AEC shatters all-time system peak; asks members to voluntarily shed electric load

As of 7:45 am on Tuesday, January 7, Appalachian Electric Cooperative set an all-time system peak of 328 megawatts. This unprecedented demand for electricity shattered the utility’s previous peak of 286 megawatts, which was set in 2009.

In response to the extreme temperatures across our region, the Tennessee Valley Authority has issued a Power Supply Alert 2, which includes a voluntary emergency load curtailment request for residential and commercial customers across their seven-state service territory.

In view of this development and in an effort to avoid potential outages, AEC is asking its members to shed all unnecessary electric load until later today. Actions which will have the greatest benefit include:

• Turning down the thermostat a couple of degrees
• Postponing the use of electric appliances such as dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, stoves, etc.
• Turning off nonessential lights, computers, televisions, and other electrical equipment

At the present time, there are no outages in AEC’s service area. Co-op line crews and operations personnel are working around-the-clock to maintain the system load and keep the lights on.

Please check AEC’s website at aecoop.org and Facebook page for updates as they become available.