Demand for electricity set records Tuesday

(Harrisburg) — Tuesday’s bone-chilling temperatures brought electricity demand to an all-time high for the winter for two utilities.

PPL Electric Utilities says it beat a 2007 record by more than 200 megawatt-hours.

A megawatt hour could power about 110 homes for a year, according to estimates.

PJM Interconnection, an electricty provider for 14 states, also set a record, says spokeswoman Paula Dupont-Kidd.

“The record we broke actually was for 141,312. But the highest we ever got in the winter before that was about 136,000 megawatts.”

Dupont-Kidd says the weather and demand associated with it caused some minor problems at electricity generation plants Tuesday.

“We had some generation plants that shut down because of problems with the equipment. Some of it, things that could happen at any time of year, and others because of having to work the equipment harder to meet the power needs.”

According to PPL, power usage peaked between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday.

PPL says customers used 7,784 megawatt hours in the five-o’clock hour Tuesday, beating a 2007 record of 7,577.

Tuesday’s record only is for the winter.

Power usage is typically highest in the summer, when air conditioners are turned up to keep cool.