The Tennessee Valley Authority says it takes “full responsibility for the impact” rolling blackouts had on customers during winter storm Elliott over Christmas weekend. The TVA also said it has begun a thorough review of “what occurred and why” in order to better manage these types of events going forward.
The comments were made in a statement posted to the TVA website on Dec. 28, just days after the agency experienced record demand for electricity in the midst of frigid, sometimes single-digit or sub-zero temperatures across the region.
According to the TVA, the agency recorded the highest 24-hour electricity demand in its 90-year history at 740 gigawatt hours on Dec. 23. The TVA also hit its all-time highest weekend peak power demand at 31,756 megawatts just hours later at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve. According to the National Weather Service, residents in parts of Cherokee County later woke up to a temperature of only 1 degree Fahrenheit on Saturday morning.
“We never want to impact anyone’s energy at any time,” the TVA said. “This is not the way we want to serve our communities and customers.
“We are committed to sharing these lessons learned and – more importantly – the corrective actions we take in the weeks ahead to ensure we are prepared to manage significant events in the future.”
The TVA, which supplies power to several Appalachian states and serves about 10 million people, ordered the utilities it supplies to begin outages on Dec. 23-24. Cherokee County customers receive power from Murphy Electric Power Board, Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corp. and Duke Energy.
The TVA said this was the first time in its history that it had directed “targeted load curtailments due to extreme power demand.” The agency said it directed local power companies to reduce power consumption on two occasions over the Christmas weekend.
On Dec. 23, a 5 percent system-wide power consumption reduction occurred for two hours and 15 minutes. On Dec. 24, a system-wide power consumption reduction was instituted in 5-10 percent curtailments for 5 hours and 40 minutes.
N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper has asked for an investigation into how Duke Energy handled its notification to customers about the blackouts.
“Duke Energy assures me N.C. is in the clear now,” Cooper said in a Dec. 27 post on his Twitter account. “But I’m deeply concerned about people who lost power and didn’t get notice about rotating outages. I’ve asked Duke for a complete report on what went wrong and for changes to be made.”
Duke is expected to brief officials with the N.C. Utilities Commission next week about the rolling blackouts, which left about 500,000 customers without power over the Christmas weekend.
Duke Energy spokesman Keith Richardson told The Center Square about 11 percent of Duke’s 4.5 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina were impacted by the power outages that began on Dec. 23 and continued through Christmas Eve, but declined to provide further details on what caused the problems.
“I think we’re still looking at it,” he said. “I don’t have that specific information now.”
The TVA did not specify when it expects to complete its internal review.
“We will learn from this unprecedented event and are committed to providing you with the reliable service you expect and deserve,” the TVA said at the conclusion of its statement.