“Americans used more electricity last week than any week for which records have been kept,” the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) said Wednesday, leading a number of gas traders to place their bets on a very bullish natural gas storage report Thursday. It was the second new weekly power demand record in the last three weeks, sparked by a searing heat wave that stretched across two-thirds of the country.

EEI’s Weekly Electric Output, a survey of electricity demand, said that for the week ending Aug. 5, Americans consumed 98,583 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity, erasing the previous single-week record of 96,314 GWh set during the week ending July 22, for a 2.4% increase. Many power utilities saw their peak demand records fall on both occasions and at least one gas distributor set its first ever summertime natural gas peak demand record last week (see separate story).

The July heat wave that set a new record, now eclipsed, was credited with causing an unusual summertime net gas storage withdrawal, which could show up again when the Energy Information Administration announces last week’s storage numbers Thursday.

“Once again the nation’s electric system withstood a severe test,” said EEI President Tom Kuhn. “Apart from some localized outages, the system worked, the power remained on and the transmission grid was resilient.”

Kuhn reiterated the importance of the utility industry’s mission to continue investing more to expand and upgrade the nation’s high-voltage transmission grid and its local distribution networks, and he also noted the critical role played by energy efficiency and conservation. He voiced support for the National Action Plan on Energy Efficiency released last week.

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