HEAT WAVE IN EAST TENNESSEE

ATHENS, Tenn. – As everyone in East Tennessee knows, it is hot.

While this part of the southeast has been pretty lucky with summer temperatures thus far in the season, the rest of this week promises to be very hot indeed.

“This is some of the hottest weather of the year, and it looks to continue throughout this weekend,” said Athens Utilities Board’s (AUB) Wayne Scarbrough.

“We at AUB and all the other 153 power distributors in the valley have already been under what is called ‘Step 10’ in TVA’s load curtailment program.  This is the first step, where we simply turn off all unnecessary electric equipment at the utility to try ease demand,” he said.

The utility expects to hear from TVA, either today or tomorrow, regarding the next step in the program, known as Step 20.

TVA expects demand to be in excess of 30,000 megawatts in the next couple of days.   TVA’s total capacity is about 33,727 megawatts, according to the TVA website.

“Obviously, we’re getting close to TVA’s capacity, so we expect to see Step 20 to be enacted soon,” Scarbrough said.

“Step 20 is when we appeal to all the public to cut off any unnecessary electrical equipment possible.  It is important.  This is to keep TVA from going further, where actual curtailments of power take effect, so it is critical to respond as well as you can.”

AUB asks that everyone be ready to cut their power use during the hottest part of the day, roughly 2 p.m. until 6 p.m., if at all possible, as soon as the Step 20 guidelines lead the utility to ask the public to curtail use.  

“We’re not there just yet, but we expect it in the next day or so,” Scarbrough said.

“Even one degree makes a difference when all the households get together and participate, washing dishes and clothes in the morning and later at night, cutting off anything that’s not needed, and bumping the thermostat up just a bit to use less air conditioning,” he said.

About 83 cents of every dollar that AUB’s power division collects go to TVA for wholesale power.