The last seven days are going into the record books, according to reports now coming in from northeastern natural gas and power utilities. Old Man Winter 2003 hit the region with a vengeance, breaking previous years’ winter records for power send-outs in four of the last seven days. Three Mid-Atlantic gas distributors also reported record deliveries on Jan. 23.

Power send-outs in the PJM Interconnection topped the previous winter record high for the mid-Atlantic states set in January 2000 on four days in the last week, with highest demand of 55,031 MW coming last Thursday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. EST when the average daily temperature in the region was 17 degrees.

Monday night, Jan. 27, was the latest in the string of high send-outs to top the previous years’ winter record of 50,129 MW set on Jan. 27, 2000. A PJM spokesman said Monday night’s sendout was in the 53,000-54,000 MW range, not enough to beat last Thursday. “We waiting to put out the release until we got the numbers from last night, but they came in under last Thursday’s record.”

Jan. 23 also went into the record books for Washington Gas Light Co. when sub-freezing temperatures gripped the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. WGL reported deliveries of 1.4 Bcf of natural gas to its customers on that day, surpassing the company’s previous record send-out of 1.3 Bcf set on Jan.19, 1994. That compares to a typical January day when the company would expect to deliver about 900 MMcf.

KeySpan Energy spokeswoman Diana Parisi said her company’s New York City facilities, located in the boroughs of Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens, hit a natural gas demand all-time high of 1,081,153 Dth on Jan.23, surpassing the previous record of 1,079,176 Dth set on Jan. 17, 2000. KeySpan also topped a record in its Long Island gas operations last week, reporting that its Long Island customers consumed approximately 45% more natural gas than is normally used during this time of year. Parisi said KeySpan “usually” requires about 450,000 Dth/d for its customers on Long Island, but on Jan. 22, the region pulled an all-time record demand of 650,000 Dth, which surpassed the previous record of 641,000 Dth set on Jan. 17, 2000.

PSE&G in New Jersey also had record natural gas deliveries Jan. 23, sending 2,425 MMcf/d to its customers. The low temperature that day in the company’s service area was 13.4 degrees. PSE&G’s power sendout Jan. 23 also set an unofficial winter peak demand record for electricity of 6,877 MW.

ISO New England also topped the previous years’ winter record on four of the last seven days — Jan. 21, 22, 23 and 27, 2003 — with send-outs of 21,486 MW, 21,597 MW (standing record), 21,372 and 21,370, according to preliminary data. All were above the previous winter peak record of 21,176 MW set on Jan. 17, 2000.

The New York ISO also recorded new peaks on Jan. 23 and Jan. 24 in the face of record cold, sending out 24,458 and 24,453 MW respectively on those days.

While high by winter standards, last week’s deliveries didn’t approach PJM’s summer peak record of 63,777 MW set Aug. 14, 2002. New England’s all-time record also came on Aug. 14, 2002 with a 25,348 MW send-out. New York’s top came Aug. 9, 2001 when it delivered 30,983 MW.

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