Swepco Says Customer Demand Peaked in August

AEP Southwestern Electric Power Company says electricity usage and demand by their customers peaked exactly one month ago.Summer temperatures of more than 100 degrees coupled with high humidity brought the peak customer demand to its highest on Monday, August 10 with a 5,149 megawatt load on the SWEPCO system.

While very high, this did not match the all time peak load for the power company that totaled 5,554 megawatts demand on August 3, 2011. The summer of 2011 was particularly hot across the area with a large number of 100 plus degree days.

SWEPCO says the peak this year of 5,149 megawatts occurred around 5 p.m. on August 10, when high temperatures in the four states area hit around 106 degrees.

A megawatt is a million watts, or enough energy to supply the power to about 250,500 homes in the summer heat.

Overall, with the wet and mild start to the summer, the peak demand for the months of June, July, and August actually was 1.9 percent under the projected SWEPCO load for the summer.

Looking back at the fairly mild summer of 2014, the peak demand load was 4,836 megawatts on August 25, when temperatures in the area were near 100 degrees.

If you are looking forward to cooler temperatures and lower electric bills, fall officially begins in less than two weeks on Wednesday September 23.