Preventing power blackouts in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — With this week’s excessive warmth, energy corporations are seeing report demand. In some areas of the nation, they fear about having sufficient energy to get them by means of the summer time. 

On Monday, Tennessee set a report for the quantity of energy utilized in June.  

“They’re commonplace temperatures for summer time within the Tennessee Valley, however it’s a little bit uncommon to see them within the center a part of June. These normally are available in a July, August timeframe,” Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman Jim Hopson mentioned. 

Some components of the nation worry blackouts from the anticipated enhance in demand within the coming months.   

“Anytime that you just’ve obtained a big space of utmost temperatures, whether or not that’s warmth or chilly, that actually is impacting a big a part of the nation, that does place a pressure on the general energy system,” Hopson mentioned. 

TVA can also be monitoring and planning for elevated demand this summer time, nonetheless, they imagine they’ll keep forward of the necessity.  

“Forty % of the vitality in our space comes from nuclear energy, which is 24 hours a day, seven days every week. We get one other 13-15% of our energy from hydroelectric, the unique renewable energy that TVA was based on again in 1933,” Hopson mentioned. “We get extra from photo voltaic and wind and we additionally use pure gasoline and coal to assist fill within the gaps when we’ve got these very excessive demand days.” 

Nashville Electrical Service can also be taking steps. 

“We do all kinds of load-flow evaluation and upgrades to the system all year long to plan for these heavy use instances. Additionally, one other factor we do, we postpone plenty of our upkeep actions,” mentioned Jack Baxter, NES Vice President of Energy System Operations. 

At house, clients are inspired to show up their thermostat, even a level or two, in the course of the hottest instances of the day. Not solely will this assist carry down your payments, however it may well additionally assist forestall issues with our total energy system. 

“Anytime we will decrease the facility demand, particularly throughout peak durations, it helps preserve the system dependable.  TVA has one of the dependable transmission programs within the nation. In actual fact, we’ve had 99.999% reliability for the final 21 years straight,” Hopson mentioned. “However on the identical time, each little bit helps.” 

For those who’re concerned about decreasing your invoice, you may request an vitality audit with the TVA. They’ll ship a workers member to your private home to undergo and search for methods you may cut back your vitality consumption.