Keeping cool amid the hot and muggy temperatures in the Tennessee Valley this week is pushing up power demand for TVA to the highest point yet this summer.
Electrical users across the 7-state region consumed 28,033 megawatts of power as air conditioners in homes and offices cooled building amid temperatures that reached an average high of 91 degrees Fahrenheit at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Patrick Walshe, manager of resource operations and analysis for transmission operations and power supply at TVA, said temperatures may not be quite as hot today across the region, but TVA still expects its peak power demand today to top 28,000 megawatts.
“We’ve been close to average temperatures through June of this year, but we still think it might average a degree or two above normal for the rest of the summer,” said Walshe, a meteorologist who oversees TVA’s power load planning. “Our summer peaks are usually in the last week of July and the first couple of weeks of August.”
Walshe said TVA expects to have no trouble meeting the demand for power, even with TVA’s newest nuclear nuclear reactor still offline for repairs.