Jackson EMC says it is ready for high demand during cold snap

JEFFERSON - Jackson EMC said Monday afternoon it is prepared for the extreme cold and the strain the cold could put on its distribution system.

Company officials said the demand for electricity will be high as people run their heating units overtime during the arctic cold snap, and they acknowledge there could be an equipment malfunction.

"Any piece of equipment may operate just fine under normal use, but could have problems when stressed by high demand. We expect our load to be very high during these extremely cold temperatures, which will stress our system and could cause some of our equipment to malfunction. This same situation occurs in extremely cold weather as when the temperatures are extremely high," said Jackson EMC Vice President of Engineering & Operations Jim Smith.

Smith said Jackson EMC has prepared for the extreme weather by increasing staffing in its System Control Center, which monitors more than 13,000 miles of energized wire in 10 counties.

"Trucks are stocked and ready to go, and our linemen are prepared to respond to any outages that may occur," Smith said.

Jackson EMC members may report outages from a PC at outage.jacksonemc.com or from a smartphone or wireless device at mobile.jacksonemc.com, or by calling 1-855-422-7600. Outages can be tracked on the cooperative's outage map in the Storm Center at www.jacksonemc.com.