A bomb cyclone of arctic climate dubbed winter storm Elliott hammered the nation and Alabama over the Christmas vacation, bringing fridge temperatures and dreaded energy outages in Southern states and the Northern elements of Alabama.
Whereas Duke Energy within the Carolinas and TVA in Tennessee and Northern Alabama had been compelled to implement intentional energy outages—known as “rolling blackouts”— to protect the businesses’ energy grid, the identical was not true for Alabama Energy which solely skilled minimal buyer interruptions and no “rolling blackouts.”
Alabama Energy Media Relations Supervisor Alyson Tucker attributes the corporate’s success to long-term planning, a various vitality combine and proactive measures earlier than any main climate occasion.
“Winter Storm Elliott created important challenges for all the utility trade,” stated Tucker in an e mail to APR. “Preliminary knowledge reveals the intense temperatures set an all-time winter peak in vitality utilization for Alabama Energy.”
Tucker stated the corporate skilled a “making an attempt few days,” however “our staff’s planning and preparation helped us present the dependable service our clients rely upon.”
“Our groups responded to the decision, leaving their households in the course of the holidays to make sure clients throughout the state could possibly be secure and heat with their households,” Tucker stated.
In response to Tucker, the corporate’s proactive measures are defending producing models and getting ready them for high-demand seasons. “Lengthy-term planning and funding in our transmission and distribution programs play an vital position in reliability throughout such occasions.”
Tucker additionally stated it was the corporate’s funding “in a various vitality combine, that helped it present dependable providers to clients throughout excessive temperatures.”
“We incorporate seasonal planning to deal with each summer season and winter circumstances into our ongoing, detailed evaluation of the state’s vitality wants, together with peak load and vitality forecasts, to greatest serve our clients and plan for era wants throughout elevated demand,” defined Tucker.
Duke Energy and TVA noticed between 180,000 and greater than 100,000 clients respectively with out service whereas Alabama Energy had only some thousand subscribers experiencing any interruption.
So dire was the state of affairs in Tennessee that the NFL pushed again the beginning time of the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans recreation in Nashville for one hour resulting from rolling blackouts attributable to the climate that strained TVA’s electrical grid.
Tucker says Alabama Energy’s proactive stance allowed it to keep away from issues skilled by surrounding states and North Alabama.
Winter storm Elliott was a generational climate occasion of which Alabama has seen many. Lengthy-term planning, vitality range and readiness had been the watchwords that stored the lights on for many in Alabama.
