The electric grid has stabilized as temperatures warm up across the region, so the Tennessee Valley Authority has suspended rolling blackouts, which were occurring every hour for many customers.
Power demand has surged since temperatures plummeted Thursday night set a new record for TVA, though the utility said it was also dealing with units that were down because of the weather.
It was up to local power companies, which get their electricity from TVA, to decide how to manage reducing demand by 10%. Nashville Electric Service warns that “rotating power curtailment” could be needed again, asking customers to continue going easy on electricity use.
As customers across Tennessee managed blackouts, the Titans game scheduled for noon became a flashpoint as the lights had been on continuously at Nissan Stadium. Nashville Mayor John Cooper said he asked the team to postpone “in solidarity” with residents. The team opted to delay kickoff by one hour.
“We are exploring every possibility to minimize non-essential power around the stadium,” team spokesperson Kate Guerra said in a statement.
We have ended planned intermittent interruptions, also known as rolling blackouts. We appreciate your patience as we worked with our 153 local power companies and industrial customers to manage record-setting power demand. pic.twitter.com/zOMk9XMsKJ
— Tennessee Valley Authority (@TVAnews) December 24, 2022
Reported earlier
The nation’s largest public power utility struggled to meet demands earlier Saturday, as sustained single-digit temperatures gripped Tennessee. Local providers had to increase rolling blackouts to cut demand by 10%, up from 5% on Friday.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which powers 10 million homes, says the pinch is caused by more than people trying to stay warm in the historic cold snap. Chief operating officer Don Moul says some power plants have also failed — though the utility has not disclosed many details.
“Due to the extreme cold and high winds, we have lost some generation,” Moul said Friday night. “Our employees are working around the clock to return these units to service.”
In the meantime, TVA is requiring its local power companies to cut more power usage. Nashville Electric Service is conducting blackouts for 10 minutes per hour for most customers and providing regular updates on Twitter.
Middle Tennessee Electric is instituting 15-minute blackouts, while warning that some outages will last longer because a manual switch is required.
Clarksville’s utility is offering specific warnings to neighborhoods for each 15-minute blackout.
Businesses have also been asked to curtail activity where they can. And households are supposed to curb use.
Aside from hourly blackouts, many thousands have been left in the cold for hours because of other failing grid infrastructure at the local level. NES is having problems with a substation in Hermitage. In East Nashville, a line along Crutcher Street continues to “burn down” because of excessive load.
Blake Farmer WPLN NewsThere was enough snow Thursday night for some sledding, though the single-digit temperatures kept many would-be sledders inside.
Fatality confirmed
The Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed the state’s first fatality from the brutally cold conditions hitting the state.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency says warming centers have been opened across the state. Tennesseans are being asked to contact their local emergency management agency for details.
Temperatures are expected to rise overnight Friday, though they’ll peak only around 10 degrees in Nashville. The temperature is not expected to rise above freezing until Monday afternoon.
The Tennessee Valley Authority and local utilities are also asking customers to conserve power by lowering thermostats and avoiding nonessential usage. Earlier Friday, utilities triggered rolling blackouts to protect the grid.
Nashville Electric Service says the extreme cold has strained the Tennessee Valley Authority’s power generation facilities and that the power provider has asked local utilities to cut their electricity load by 5%. NES customers will experience 10-minute power outages roughly every 90 minutes to two hours.
“This is expected to last until the power load is stabilized,” NES says.
Other local utilities have made similar announcements.
#NESServiceAlert pic.twitter.com/ze260xBUKE
— Nashville Electric Service (@NESpower) December 23, 2022
Temperatures plunged below zero degrees in Nashville for the first time in decades, as an early winter storm dropped about an inch of snow across Middle Tennessee late Thursday and early Friday.
The storm has left behind slick roads, and 135 flights to or from Nashville International Airport have already been canceled as of 8 a.m. Friday, on what is normally one of the busiest travel days of the year. Emergency responders are asking people to just stay home if at all possible. Even interstates are covered with snow and ice.
WeGo says its buses are operating on snow route detours. Routes 6, 14, 19, 22B, 29, 41, 42 and 75 will not run Friday due to icy conditions, nor will regional buses operated by Gray Line — routes 87, 88, 89, 94 and 95. Route 4 is operating modified service to Shelby Avenue and 19th Street.
The Arctic blast has caused some power outages. Nashville Electric Service reports about 2,000 customers are without power this morning; statewide, the total is about 46,000 out of more than 3 million customers. Line crews are working through the rough conditions to make sure people can stay warm.
High temperatures today are not expected to break 10 degrees in many parts of the region. A windchill warning remains in effect until noon Friday and a windchill advisory is in place until noon Saturday. Temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing until Monday.
Although remarkably cold — Nashville has not seen temperatures so low in a quarter century — the city did not approach its record. That was set in January 1985, when the temperature fell to minus 17 degrees.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM