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January 24, 2003
RECORD COLD WEATHER HELPS PUSH JEA TO NEW ALL-TIME RECORD PEAK
JEA set a new all-time peak electric load this morning of 3,166 Megawatts (MW). That shatters the previous peak of 2,732 MW set on Jan. 3, 2001. The new record means that residents and businesses in the Jacksonville area needed more electricity today than any other day in history by a huge margin.
Throughout the night and morning, JEA kept the lights on to more than 99 percent of its customers despite windy, cold conditions that blew tree limbs into heavily loaded power lines. Repair crews worked quickly, efficiently and safely to restore power in outdoor conditions that at times felt as cold as 5 degrees! JEA's water system performed extraordinarily well with no reported main breaks and only a handful of customer calls which in most cases turned out to be problems within the customers' homes.
JEA anticipated the effects of the weather and scheduled additional repair crews, which were pre-positioned around the service territory to enable JEA to respond as quickly as possible to the scattered outages as they occurred.
JEA will be taking similar steps to ensure continued service through tomorrow morning when temperatures are again expected to be near 20 degrees. We do not expect to set a record for peak usage tomorrow since electric usage typically drops on weekends.
The unusually cold weather means Jacksonville residents may see much higher heating bills compared to the last few winters. For information on how to stay warm and lower heating bills, visit our new web site at www.jea.com. Customers without internet access can request copies of fact sheets by calling JEA at 665-6000.
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