WASHINGTON — Temperatures in February have been consistently below normal, with some record lows sprinkled in.
Now, the coldest blast of the year arrives, demanding more of the power grid and the heating bill.
Thursday and Friday, the daytime highs are expected to be about 30 degrees below average.
“Looking forward to the next couple days, we’re going to be trending higher, towards where we were a year ago during the Polar Vortex,” says Paula Dupont-Kidd, a spokesperson for PJM Interconnection.
PJM coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in large parts of the Mid-Atlantic and even into the Midwest.
Dupont-Kidd says the demand so far this winter has not set records, but extra help may get the call to keep the lights on the next two days.
“With weather changes being extreme, you find yourself sometimes having higher demand than what you had originally forecast,” she says.
Extra resources have been put on notice.
