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The winter of ’82 will long be remembered for its extremely cold temperatures, heavy snowfalls, and record demands for electricity.
And one effect of the weather will be showing up in your electric bill. It will be higher, because the colder it is, the more electricity you use.
How cold has it been? As measured at our Hagerstown office, the average temperature on 29 of the first 37 days of 1982 has been freezing or below. In fact, the U.S. Weather Service has recorded all-time record lows on some days. Wind conditions have made it even more severe.
When it is that cold for a sustained time period, heating systems must work harder. More lighting is needed during shorter daylight hours. Ground water is colder and it takes more electricity for water heating. With the bad weather, people spend more time indoors cooking, watching TV or other leisure activities.
The cold weather brought an all-time peak use of electricity on January 11 when customer demand on the PE system hit 1,651,000 kilowatts. That’s nearly 7 percent higher than last winter’s highest use, and nearly 10% higher than forecast.
94.3%