The Tennessee Valley Authority on Wednesday said it takes “full responsibility” for the impact of the first-ever mandatory power outages during the cold weather on Friday and Saturday last week, and it is reviewing what happened.
“We at TVA take full responsibility for the impact we had on our customers,” the electrical provider said in a press release posted on its website. “We never want to impact anyone’s energy at any time. This is not the way we want to serve our communities and customers.
“We are conducting a thorough review of what occurred and why. 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.”
There were sustained record-breaking cold temperatures and high winds last week, and the winter storm strained power grids across the nation, TVA said.
During a 24-hour period on Friday, December 23, TVA said it supplied more power than at any other time in its nearly 90-year history.
“This event also produced the highest winter power peak in TVA history,” TVA said. “It was also the first time in TVA’s 90-year history that we’ve had to direct targeted load curtailments due to extreme power demand.”
TVA directed local power companies to reduce power consumption twice last week, once on Friday, December 23, and the second on Saturday, December 24.
On Friday, there was a 5 percent system-wide power consumption reduction for two hours and 15 minutes.
On Saturday, there was a system-wide power consumption reduction in 5-10 percent curtailments for 5 hours and 40 minutes.
“Most of the local power companies were able to target power reductions that impacted customers for relatively short durations,” TVA said. “We greatly appreciate their partnership and support throughout this event.”
TVA spokesperson Scott Fielder said it will take several weeks to do a “full analysis to better understand the event and how to prepare to manage significant events in the future.”
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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