Oh, it’s on! Sweaty metro Phoenix power customers break usage mark

PHOENIX — Daily record high temperatures in metro Phoenix this week has led, to no one’s surprise, to record-high power use.

The state’s largest public utility company, Arizona Public Service, reported its customers powered up 7,350 megawatts Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. when temperatures topped out at 119 degrees.

Today’s energy use broke the record! APS customers had a peak demand of 7,350 megawatts between 5 and 6pm. Stay cool out there!

— APS (@apsFYI) June 21, 2017

That topped the previous day’s 7,120 megawatts. A single megawatt equals 1 million watts. Megawatts measure power output for cities.

Those power-hungry folks were not alone. Salt River Project customers set a usage record Monday.

Energy-demand record set on Monday! Expected to break that today. Got #outage qs? Visit https://t.co/vkGMKagOS6. https://t.co/KL5T8pI3N6 pic.twitter.com/LzaUDVU99B

— Salt River Project (@SRPconnect) June 21, 2017

SRP set up a free heat relief center in Pinal County where residents can get out of the sun through Thursday.

The site at Combs and Schnepf roads was scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. The company has stocked the center with bottled water, snacks and phone charging stations.

The center is part of Maricopa County’s Heat Relief Network.

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