WINTER STORM ELLIOTT'S IMPACT ON UTILITIES
Residents in Lincoln County and across the Tennessee Valley experienced record-setting low temperatures over the holiday weekend. The extreme weather required the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), for the first time in its history, to institute energy load reductions. TVA accepted full responsibility for the impact power reductions had on customers and communities.
Due to extreme energy demand, TVA called for temporary power reductions, or rolling power outages, to stabilize the regional power grid. During the 24-hours of December 23, TVA reached 740 gigawatt-hours, a record for the most demand ever supplied in its history. The peak demand on December 24, was 31,756 megawatts, which marked a record for a weekend. As a result, TVA directed all 153 local power companies, including Fayetteville Public Utilities (FPU), to implement rolling power outages for the first time in TVA’s almost 90-year history.
“On Friday, December 23, FPU became aware of the possibility of rolling power outages and notified the public via radio and social media beginning at 1:26 p.m. with additional updates given throughout the afternoon,” said FPU CEO/General Manager Britt Dye. “Due to a critical situation with the regional power grid, TVA implemented the rolling power outages early Saturday morning giving local power companies very little notice before requiring load reductions to help stabilize the grid. At 5:30 a.m., FPU announced the initiation of rolling power outages in our area. As TVA provided additional information, we did our best to update the public on the radio, social media and website. If TVA had not called for this reduction, the situation could have been much worse. Instead of losing power for approximately 30 minutes at a time, the power disruptions could have been far longer and affected much broader regions.”
To avoid major power outages, TVA mandated local power companies to shed their loads and doing so helped cut 2,000 megawatts off the grid. This challenging situation was the result of several factors. TVA had to reduce strain on its grid as demand for energy ran nearly 35 percent higher than expected on a typical winter day. At the same time, a few of TVA’s coal and gas energy facilities were down due to equipment issues caused by the freezing temperatures. In addition, third party contracted plants were experiencing the same issues as TVA and could not supply extra power.
“TVA has already begun the assessment of the equipment and system performance,” stated TVA CEO Jeff Lyash. “We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in hardening this system and preparing it for events like this. In some cases, the preparation wasn’t effective, and so we clearly need to do more. We’re going to assess the performance of this system. We’re going to identify the investments that need to be made so that if we experience an event like this again, in the future, our assets perform better than they did this time.”
For the first time in its history, TVA initiated Step 50 of their Emergency Load Curtailment Plan (ELCP), which requires all local power companies to curtail their load in support of maintaining a stable grid. In a matter of minutes, TVA increased the required reduction from 5 percent to 10 percent. To shed 10 percent, FPU had to reduce power use on heavily loaded circuits in the service area. Approximately 15,000 FPU customers were interrupted during the mandated power reduction. FPU’s system performed well and remained stable throughout the weather event.
“Power interruptions are difficult especially during the holidays,” Dye added. “We understood our customers’ frustration with the rolling power outages and the requests to provide a schedule of outages. However, the situation was continuously changing as TVA monitored the stability of the regional grid and adjusted load curtailments. Due to the rapid change in conditions, it was impossible to provide an accurate schedule of power outages. Fluctuating variables made it difficult to predict how many customers would need to be interrupted to reduce the load by 10 percent. By the time a schedule had been released, conditions would have necessitated a change.”
On Christmas Day, FPU discovered that an aging water tap was responsible for a water leak along the east side of Huntsville Highway. The leak involved a 12-inch main line and affected areas from Camp Blount to Riverside Christian Academy. Crews were able to isolate the leak and repair it on Monday without completely shutting the water off to the impacted areas. At 11:35 a.m., customers were notified via the radio and social media to expect water pressure to be lowered during the repair. Within 20 minutes, the leak was fixed, and water pressure was restored.
“We are thankful for our customers who exhibited patience and understanding as we worked with TVA and other local power companies to stabilize the grid and maintain reliability,” Dye commented. “We appreciate our industrial partners who reduced their energy usage to help us manage the situation. We are also grateful for our employees who worked around the clock in frigid, wet and windy conditions to maintain and repair services instead of spending Christmas at home with their families.”