Midwest power companies brace for another heat wave next week
The Midwest power grid operator on Friday issued a hot weather alert for Monday, telling the region's generators and transmission owners to prepare plants and power lines for another heat wave next week.
The alert also tells transmission owners not to conduct any unnecessary maintenance on their equipment during the heat wave, the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) said in a release.
High temperatures in Chicago, the biggest metropolitan area in the Midwest were expected to reach 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius) on Sunday and Monday, and 90 on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, before falling to near normal levels in the 80s on Friday, according to weather forecaster AccuWeather.com.
MISO, which operates the power grid in 11 U.S. Midwest states and the province of Manitoba in Canada, forecast electric demand next week would be high, reaching about 93,400 megawatts (MW) on Monday, 94,600 MW on Tuesday and 93,300 MW on Wednesday, but was not expected to break any usage records.
During a brutal heat wave this week when the mercury hit 99 degrees in Chicago, peak demand was close to but did not break the system's all-time record of 98,526 MW set in July 2011....MORE
