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Georgia Transmission Sets Peak Electric Use Record

Posted on: Thursday, 3 August 2006, 18:00 CDT

TUCKER, Ga., Aug. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia Transmission Corp. set a new one-hour peak electricity use record of 8,395 megawatts (MW) of power from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, exceeding the previous all-time peak of 8,274 MW set on July 26, 2005.

Georgia Transmission is a not-for-profit company that owns, builds and maintains high-voltage power lines and substations that transmit power to 39 of the state's 42 electric membership cooperatives (EMCs). The state's 42 EMCs are customer-owned electric utilities that provide electricity to more than 4.2 million Georgians and have combined service territories of 73 percent of the state, including large parts of Gwinnett, Cobb, Paulding, Fayette and Henry counties.

"As in other parts of the country now, high temperatures in Georgia are increasing electricity use to record-setting levels," said Mike Smith, Georgia Transmission's CEO. "So far our system has been up to the challenge, and we have not had to call for significant load-shedding or emergency conservation efforts. Our employees are monitoring substation performance and redistributing power as needed. We are also doing contingency planning with EMCs in areas where substations are close to reaching maximum capacity."

Smith said that since the forecast calls for more hot days, this record is likely to be broken again this summer. One megawatt, measured in this case as usage during a one-hour period minus line losses, is enough power to run about 800 homes.

Georgia Transmission owns and maintains about 2,800 miles of the state's 17,500 miles of transmission lines, and its lines transmit about one-third of the power in the state. That power is delivered to the local EMCs that use separate networks of distribution power lines to provide service to homes, businesses and other customers.

The company, owned by the 39 co-ops it serves, adds an average of 70 miles of transmission lines and 20 substations a year to keep pace with rising population growth and per capita use. More than 320 miles of new lines are planned to be built during the next three years.

"We are able to build and maintain the infrastructure we all need thanks to support and cooperation of thousands of Georgians every year," said Smith. "These days should serve as a reminder that we are all connected by and depend on a statewide grid of transmission power lines - a grid we too often take for granted."

Georgia Transmission Corp.

CONTACT: Barry Dillon, Georgia Transmission Corp., +1-770-270-7835,barry.dillon@gatrans.com

Source: PRNewswire

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