While frigid morning temperatures may be uncomfortable for individuals when they go outside, they can also cause some issues with electrical service, according to an official with Jackson EMC.
Corporation Director of Public Relations and Communication April Sorrow said the problems arise from a high demand for electricity or load being put on the power grid.
"When people started to wake up and get ready to get into work, they did what I did and what a lot of people do, they turn on the hot water, they maybe start the dishwasher, they crank the heat up, and so that is also causing a massive amount of load to be put on the transmission," Sorrow said.
Sorrow said about 1,600 of the EMC's customers were without electricity for a time Tuesday morning. Most of the scattered outages occurred between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m. as temperatures dipped into the low teens in the corporation's service area.
"That can cause fuses to have some issues and the transformers themselves to not operate as they should," Sorrow said.
Because of the high demand, the EMC implemented its load management program for the morning. The effort, usually seen during hot summer months, allows the corporation to use switches to turn off some residential water heaters for brief periods. Members who are a part of the program allow the switches to be installed.
In addition, Sorrow said other members can help with demand by putting off optional things like washing and drying clothes and running the dish washer until the middle of the day.
Sorrow said the corporation has prepared for the extreme temperatures by stocking trucks, preparing linemen and increasing staffing in the EMC's system control center.
Roughly 800 Jackson EMC members remained without electricity at 9 a.m. Workers had whittled that number down to 272 by 11:30 a.m.
