The Arctic blast that lowered overnight temperatures to single digits for several days across the Tennessee Valley last week pushed power consumption to record highs as the 10 million customers of the Tennessee Valley Authority turned up their electric heat pumps, furnaces and heaters to stay warm.
TVA set an all-time system peak of 34,524 megawatts Wednesday, and on Saturday, the second all-time peak was reached at 34,284 megawatts. The new records eclipse the previous all-time record by more than 1,000 megawatts, the previous weekend record by more than 2,500 megawatts and the previous Sunday record by more than 3,500 megawatts.
For all of last week, TVA also set a new record for power sales at 4,790 gigawatthours, beating the previous weekly power sales record of 4,633 gigawatthours reached during a cold snap in January 2010.
Unlike TVA's previous winter power peak reached just before Christmas 2022 during Winter Storm Elliott, TVA was able to deliver enough wholesale power to meet the electricity demand across its seven-state region. Although there were thousands of scattered power outages due to downed power lines and other distribution problems among the 153 local power companies that deliver TVA power, TVA was able to generate and buy enough electricity to meet the record-high power peak.
TVA spokesperson Scott Fiedler said the record demand for energy would have been even higher without voluntary conservation measures adopted by many consumers and interruptible power contracts that limited some power deliveries during the peak for customers with contracts allowing for such peak power cutbacks.
"We do believe the public's assistance in conserving energy helped reduce demand this week, and we appreciate everyone who turned down their thermostat a couple degrees or did things like putting off using large appliances during peak hours," Fiedler said by email. "It shows the strength of the public power model when we have 10 million people vested in ensuring clean, low-cost, reliable power."
Fiedler said TVA invested more than $123 million in the past year to upgrade its equipment and help ensure coal and natural gas plants stayed operational and didn't freeze up as they did in the last major Arctic freeze during Winter Storm Elliott. In the two days before Christmas 2022, TVA's biggest coal generator at the Cumberland Fossil Plant near Clarksville, Tennessee, was knocked off the grid and a dozen natural gas generators quit working due to frozen equipment lines.
(READ MORE: TVA imposes rolling blackouts in winter storm)
Due to the investment in winter readiness and reliability last year, "We saw remarkable performance from our coal and gas fleet," Fiedler said. "Nuclear continued to be the foundation with solid performance during the storm. And, we did not see any supply challenges or transmission issues."
In the past year, TVA also built new gas plants in Alabama and Kentucky that combined added 1,500 megawatts of new natural gas generation — enough to power 878,000 homes, Fiedler said.
"Our focus was to make the critical investments needed to meet growing electricity demand while maintaining low rates that will ensure our region's energy security as we move to a clean energy future," Aaron Melda, TVA senior vice president of power supply operations, said in a report issued Monday night.
While TVA last week avoided the rolling blackouts that it previously experienced in late 2022, local utilities still reported many consumers had problems with their power or frozen pipes last week. The frigid weather across most of the country also led to at least 75 weather-related deaths, including 27 in Tennessee.
EPB said more than 15,000 of its customers last week experienced outages that were restored within minutes through EPB's Smart Grid, which automatically routes electricity across EPB's 600-square-mile service territory to help minimize power outages. EPB spokesperson Sophie Moore said more than 6,000 EPB customers lost power from problems requiring manual repairs to electric infrastructure, including poles, lines and transformers.
"In advance of last week's extreme winter temperatures, EPB prepared additional crews and staged them throughout our service area to respond to any outages," Moore said.
(READ MORE: Cold weather claims Tennessee lives)
Tennessee-American Water Co., the primary water utility provider in the Chattanooga area, said it has responded to more than 600 emergency calls since Jan. 17 and has repaired 30 main water-line breaks caused by the frigid weather freezing pipes.
"We continue to respond to customer calls to investigate the issue," Daphne L. Kirksey, external affairs manager for Tennessee American Water, said in an email Monday. "Many of these are due to a frozen or burst pipe within the customer's internal plumbing in their home or business. As the weather warms up and the ground thaws, we anticipate additional emergency calls but are prepared to repair main breaks that may occur safely and as quickly as possible."
Kirksey advised those who suspect they have a burst pipe in their plumbing to close their shut-off valve to minimize damage.
"Customers own the water line from the meter to their home as well as the pipes in the home," she said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.
Staff Photo / The Tennessee Valley Authority building is seen in downtown Chattanooga.