KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — UPDATE SATURDAY: Intentional power outages continued into late morning Saturday as utilities up and down East Tennessee tried to help the Tennessee Valley Authority cope with record demand and single-digit Arctic air.
TVA announced the rolling blackouts ended Saturday morning. The company urged people to look at ways to reduce power usage when possible. There's no word if rolling blackouts are expected Sunday.
KUB, which serves tens of thousands of customers in the Knoxville area, said on social media that TVA had informed it the intermittent outages would continue until further notice. Previously, KUB said it had gotten encouraging news that the outages would no longer be needed.
Outages were felt from Chattanooga all the way to the Tri-Cities and beyond.
Utilities in East Tennessee implemented 15- to 30-minute power outages for a second day Saturday morning, startling residents. Local utilities get their power from TVA and then distribute it to individual homes and businesses.
Fort Loudoun Electric Cooperative said it was working to comply with TVA's request to cut demand by 5 to 10 percent to help the overall supply system.
"In some cases, this resulted in power interruptions for our consumers. Reducing energy demand in a systematic, planned way helps to keep the power grid stable and prevents longer, widespread power outages," the utility said in a statement.
Arctic cold is driving record demand for power, TVA said.
East Tennessee should see highs climb into the low 20s Saturday. Highs should be near freezing Sunday.
PREVIOUS STORY: East Tennesseans experienced another round of power blackouts Saturday morning as local utilities complied with Tennessee Valley Authority requests for outages to manage high electricity demand.
Most of the outages that started around 7 a.m. lasted approximately 15-30 minutes, similar to blackouts triggered Friday by utilities.
KUB, Oak Ridge and LCUB were among the providers that halted power for a time Saturday morning.
As they did Friday, the outages upset and concerned some customers who called WBIR worried about whether they would have power.
On Thursday, a TVA spokesman had told WBIR he felt confident it would have no problem meeting power demand.
"Due to continued unprecedented cold temps resulting in high power demand, TVA has directed local power companies to reduce load. Planned intermittent interruptions support system reliability. We appreciate everyone's patience and support as we manage this unprecedented demand," KUB tweeted Saturday morning.
TVA said in a news release Saturday morning that single-digit temperatures across the region were creating demand that put "intense pressure" on the power system.
In Oak Ridge, city spokeswoman Lauren Gray said Oak Ridge was bound to comply after instructions Saturday morning by TVA. Outages affected about 10 percent of customers at a time, lasting about 30 minutes at a time.
"This is not optional as the outages are essential to prevent uncontrolled extended outages on the TVA system. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause for some of our customers," Gray said in a statement.
TVA told its utility customers to put in place "short duration, intermittent power interruptions to maintain system reliably."
The utility giant, which provides power across much of the Southeast said that the strategy was expected to be "temporary" until the highest peak power demands are met.
According to TVA, over the 24 hours of Dec. 23, TVA had to supply a record amount of energy – 740 gigawatt-hours, or 740 million kilowatt-hours.
"The cold also produced a winter record for peak power demand of 33,425 megawatts at 7 p.m. CT when the regionwide average temperature was 9 degrees," TVA said.
Our bitter cold isn't expected to ease until Christmas Day, when the high may finally reach near freezing. After that temperatures are expected to steadily rise into the 50s and lower 60s.