Heat puts strain on Wisconsin utilities

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Posted Aug. 08, 2001

Heat puts strain on utilities

Power usage surges along with Tuesday’s record temperature By Andy Nelesen Press-Gazette

Record-setting temperatures are beginning to take their toll on area utilities.

The Oconto Electric Cooperative Tuesday began asking customers to turn off nonessential electrical appliances and begged large-volume users to activate generators if they have them.

“We’re asking people to set their air conditioners a little warmer than they usually would,” said Jan Stranz, member services director for the co-op which supplies power throughout much of Oconto County. “Any little bit helps.

“We have a couple of substations at the maximum right now. The next thing that could happen … (the system is) going to start kicking things off down the line.”

The National Weather Service office in Ashwaubenon posted a record temperature of 97 degrees at 4:18 p.m., breaking the 94-degree record set in 1937.

Heat has become the utility’s nemesis in more ways than one. While handling the record loads of power, the equipment has begun to overheat, heat that would normally dissipate overnight. With the mercury barely moving when the sun goes down, the equipment is taxed to the max.

“We are right at the line right now,” Stranz said. “There have been a couple of little outages here and there as we’ve done some switching to balance the (power) load … but those have been for just a few minutes.”

The Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp. is also running into power problems. Getting enough power into the grid has proved challenging.

“We’ve been scrambling pretty good today,” said WPS spokesman Kerry Spees. “It’s hot everywhere, which has limited our ability to buy as much power as we’d like.”

WPS also cut power to its interruptible customers for the second day in a row.

The sweltering heat and humidity is expected to continue through today.

While breaking the record of 98 degrees set in 1891 is a stretch, meteorologist Tom Helman said it will be uncomfortable none-the-less.

“There’s going to be more humidity than there was today,” Helman said late Tuesday.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 08, 2001


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