The latest Energy Dept. data says, as has Sly and the Family Stone, it's hot fun in the summertime.
Contiguous U.S. electricity demand last week rose with the temperatures. Peak hour demand was up six to eight percent, every weekday, relative to the comparable day of a year ago. Daily consumption was up six to ten percent, every weekday.
Thursday, August 11 was a doozy. The contiguous U.S. demanded 710 thousand megawatts at the daily peak. We used 14,246 thousand megawatt-hours that day.
Demand and consumption in the northeast drove these high numbers.
The mid-Atlantic region had nineteen percent higher peak demand than on the comparable day of a year ago. And consumption was eighteen percent higher.
New York ISO had twenty-three percent higher peak demand. And consumption was twenty percent higher.
ISO New England had twenty-nine percent higher peak demand. And consumption was twenty-three percent higher.
Demand was slightly higher in late July. The peak was as high as 717 thousand megawatts on Monday July 25. And it was 711 or 712 thousand on three other days.
But August 11 had higher consumption, overall, than during any of these days.
Let's make the numbers more tangible. When the peak rises to 717 thousand megawatts, it takes 1,434 five-hundred megawatt generating units, running at full capacity, in order to meet load.
Keeping cool and hydrated at Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com