TVA is bracing for what could be the coldest temperatures of the winter across the Tennessee Valley early Thursday morning.
Temperatures are expected to plunge into single digits and power demand could rise close or even above the peak set on Jan. 8 when temperatures fell into single digits across the Valley and power demand for TVA rose to 32,723 megawatts – the third highest winter peak in TVA’s history.
TVA spokesman Jim Hobson said ice and freezing rain in northern Mississippi and parts of Western Tennessee left some TVA power customers without power early today. But TVA and its local power companies kept the lights through Monday and today for the overwhelming majority of the 9 million persons served by the federal utility.
“We continue to work with our local power companies to restore power in some affected areas,” Hopson said today.
A TVA transmission line covered with ice was out of service briefly in Western Tennessee, but TVA crews restored the line within an hour, Hopson said.
TVA is now preparing for what are expected to be colder temperatures later this week, although forecasts call for less precipitation than what hit the Valley Sunday, Monday and early today.
“We’re still assessing the weather and what we might experience, but we remain in a conservative operations alert,” Hopson said.
TVA is not performing any maintenance or other activity that might limit generation from one of its power plants.
“It is possible that we may move to a higher state – a power supply alert – but we’re not there yet,” he said.
TVA could ask power customers on interrupt able power contracts to limit their power use – or pay premium rates to continue operations – if power demand rises high enough.
“Our demand in the winter is almost directly tied to how low the temperature goes,” Hopson said.
A majority of the homes and businesses in the Tennessee Valley rely upon electric heat. Furnace use and demand for electricity rises as such appliances operate at higher levels to cope with colder temperatures.
Today’s power peak this morning was just above 26,000 megawatts for TVA when temperatures in the 7-state region averaged a low of 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Colder weather predicted Wednesday night and early Thursday could easily push power demand above 30,000 megawatts.
TVA’s all-time winter peak for power use was set on Jan 24, 2014 when temperatures fell into single digits during the Polar Vortex a year ago and demand jumped to 33,352 megawatts.
If power lines are hit by falling trees or ice and lay on the ground, Hopson urged consumers to always assume that the electric line is still activated and stay away from the downed line.
“You should call your local power company or other authorities, but don’t assume that a line is not activated,” he said.