The extended arctic cold blast has put a strain on natural gas and electricity local distribution companies (LDC) across the eastern third of the United States as consumers crank up their heat to counteract single-digit temperatures in many locations. Many LDCs are taking precautions as old records are broken for gas sendout and winter power demand.

Progress Energy, which provides electricity and related services to more than 1.4 million customers in Florida, said it is preparing for unusually cold weather that is expected to affect its service territory through at least Saturday morning. Gas prices at the Florida citygate shot above $7/MMBtu on Thursday.

“We are closely monitoring the approaching cold front that we expect to affect our service territory,” said Sam Spilman, Progress Energy Florida’s system storm coordinator. “While we expect to be able to handle the weather, we are preparing like it’s a major storm event. We’ll be on high alert and have made arrangements to mobilize the needed resources.”

With temperatures expected to dip as low as 15 degrees in parts of the company’s service territory, Progress Energy said the company will have additional line and service crews to ensure it is able to respond to any outages. The company (formerly known as Florida Power) said it expects to reach a new peak for energy use, and as an added safeguard has purchased additional generation on the wholesale market.

“We expect to see very high electricity use by our customers,” added Spilman. “Our power plants are up and running and in very good shape, and we have excess power in reserve. Just in case, we’ve made arrangements to purchase power from neighboring utilities. We’re also evaluating all our circuits to be sure they are ready for Friday morning’s demand.”

Neighboring utility Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) on Thursday urged customers to use electricity wisely and safely during the cold weather forecast for Friday and Saturday morning. The company said that as Florida residents gear up to stay warm in the coldest weather affecting the area since December of 1989, FPL is prepared with “adequate generating power” to supply the needs of customers, barring unexpected problems with power plant operations.

FPL, which supplies power to almost eight million Floridians, said that on Friday morning and through the weekend it will have additional crews on standby to respond to any weather-related outages, and power plants will be fully staffed.

The Florida Reliability Coordinating Council works with the four major Florida utilities (FPL, Progress Energy, Tampa Electric Co. and Gulf Power) to provide reliable power to Florida residents and says there should be reliable power on Friday and through the weekend.

“If there are unanticipated problems statewide, it is possible that FPL customers could be inconvenienced if FPL is required to use pre-arranged energy management programs,” FPL said. “If there is an unanticipated problem with FPL operations, the company would first initiate ‘On Call’ and then if necessary may rotate delivery of power to groups of customers.”

The On Call program is a pre-arranged volunteer program, in which participants select appliances to be turned off for 15-minute intervals and in turn receive a monthly credit on their bill. FPL said it does not believe this procedure will be necessary, but if implemented, customers would experience brief 20-minute interruptions of power.

In addition to the potential of outages, FPL warned its customers that cold weather has the potential to “significantly increase” electricity usage, which will result in higher bills.

In Pennsylvania, PPL Electric Utilities reported that 1.3 million customers in eastern and central Pennsylvania teamed to set a new electricity-use record. The company reported that at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, customers used 7,096 MW of electricity, breaking the old record of 6,928 MW set on Jan. 17, 2000. The company said that with the cold weather expected to continue, more records may be set Thursday night and Friday morning.

“When our customers need electricity, they can count on us to provide reliable electric delivery service,” said Michael E. Bray, president of PPL Electric Utilities. “We operate and maintain our power lines and equipment for the record level of usage that comes with this type of weather.”

Bray added that the cold has not had a “significant effect” on power plant operations in the region, meaning PPL Electric Utilities customers in 29 Pennsylvania counties also have plenty of electricity available to meet their needs during the cold spell.

Meanwhile in the Northeast, the situation was not much better with gas price highs at $22/MMBtu on Wednesday and near $15 on Thursday. KeySpan 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 Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 1,079,176 Dth set on Jan. 17, 2000. KeySpan Energy Delivery operates several utilities that provide gas service to 2.5 million customers in the three New York City boroughs, in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties, and in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

KeySpan also topped a record in its Long Island gas operations. The company said the cold spell this week has prompted Long Island customers to consume 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 company reported that Long Island it hit an all-time record for gas demand of 650,000 Dth, which surpassed the previous record of 641,000 Dth set on Jan. 17, 2000.

Despite the record day in the company’s service areas, Parisi said KeySpan “had no problems” rising to the occasion and supplying the necessary gas. “Our system is in good shape and we have no supply problems,” Parisi said. “Who knows, we might break another record tomorrow.”

Although not setting any gas demand records yet, Consolidated Edison Co. of New York (ConEd) said it has curtailed its 255 interruptible customers twice already during the freeze, once from Jan. 17 to Jan. 19 and then again on Jan. 21, which is still ongoing. The utility provides electric, gas and steam service to more than three million customers in New York City and Westchester County, NY.

“We haven’t seen any record gas sendout or throughput nor have we seen any consumption records so far,” said ConEd spokesman Joe Petta. He added that ConEd’s customer usage record of 936,000 Dth as well as its total throughput record of 1.2 million Dth — both set on Jan. 17, 2000 — are still intact.

However, ConEd’s electricity business has been booming over the last week. “On the electric side we have seen some peak winter usage,” Petta said. On Wednesday, the company hit a peak winter demand record of 8,368 MW, surpassing a Dec. 11, 2002 record of 8,344 MW. In addition, Petta said the company also had a record winter sendout of 170,191 MWh on Wednesday, beating out the mark set on Jan. 21, 2002 of 168,575 MWh. “Clearly the electric usage is way up,” he said.

As the big freeze continues, Petta said that ConEd has adequate supply contracts and is not anticipating any supply problems for either gas or electric customers.

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