ComEd has announced that, like a lot of other utilities, energy usage was at a record winter high on the evening of Monday February 5. Unlike a lot of good records that Chicago may have, this is a bad one to reach.
From the ComEd press release:
Frigid temperatures throughout northern Illinois and the Chicago area pushed ComEd customer electricity usage to a new winter peak yesterday. Demand for electricity in ComEd's territory reached a winter record of 16,207 megawatts (MW) between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday.
The previous winter record level was 16,081 MW, and the all-time high (from Aug. 1 last year) was 23,613 MW.
Hopefully the new peak demand pricing program will help take some of the edge off, and we won't continue to make new records every year. ComEd has also announced that they have new online tools for helping save on energy bills by becoming more energy efficient.
[Disclaimer: ComEd is a member organization of MEEA, my employer.]
