If Lakeland’s sky appeared hazy these past few days, it’s not from the oppressive heat. It’s grains of sand from the Sahara desert.
City residents turning up their air conditioners and fans to combat the soaring temperatures have caused electrical demands to spike this week, according to Lakeland Electric officials.
With a high of 95 degrees recorded in Lakeland on Tuesday, peak usage for the city-owned utility hit 691 gross megawatts at approximately 4 p.m., according to LE spokesman Chris Neal. The gross megawatts, he explained, includes both energy used by consumers and those needed by the utility to operate.
“It’s the highest summer peak we’ve had in the last five years,” he said. “We’re in a position to meet demands.”
The utility is purchasing the power it needs to meet the high demand through the state’s shared power pool. While Lakeland Electric normally has capacity of 830 megawatts, its coal-powered C.D. McIntosh Unit 3 is off-line through Friday for a planned outage.
“Unit 3′s repairs are underway and everything is on schedule,” read a statement from Lakeland Electric. “In the meantime, we are utilizing all our production capacity to help the power pool meet their demands.”
The Orlando Utilities Commission, a neighboring member of the shared power pool, reported an all-time high record power use for June 25.
Neil said Lakeland Electric is usually hit by the highest electrical demand during the winter months. Its highest recorded peak of 871 gross megawatts occurred on Jan. 11, 2010 during a cold snap that caused temperatures to plunge into the 20s.
If the records are any indicator, high power use is strongly linked to unusual weather patterns.
Lakeland residents are being encouraged to continue to practice conservation measures by raising their thermostats a few degrees, turning hot water off in the heat of the day, and using large appliances early in the morning or during late evening hours. More tips can be found on the company’s website at lakelandelectric.com.