Kentucky’s Arctic blast has already turned deadly and state and local officials are urging folks to keep themselves and their family as safe as possible while conserving as much energy as possible.
Crofton opened its warming shelter Friday night due to issues with power outages, but it was only open an hour before it closed when the lights came back on.
Kentucky Utilities sent an email saying they were performing rotating outages across their service area, which includes Crofton, for periods of about 30 minutes to minimize the impacts of extreme demand on their systems.
They’re also joining TVA, Pennyrile Electric and HES in asking folks to conserve energy by turning down the thermostat a little and turning off unused lights and appliances.
After initially requesting HES, Pennyrile Electric and other providers to use rotating outages to help them meet demand Friday morning, that request was rescinded by TVA about an hour later.
The increased demand on the power grid has caused numerous outages affecting thousands in the region, but Brent Gilkey with Pennyrile Electric says that’s not necessarily an issue with capacity to meet the demand—it has just been extraordinary circumstances.
There have already been several house fires in the area as folks use different methods to attempt to heat their homes in some cases and state Emergency Management Director Jeremy Slinker reminds to never put a space heater or kerosene heater close to furniture or curtains and to follow other safety precautions.
The increased demand on the power grid has caused numerous outages affecting thousands in the region, but Brent Gilkey with Pennyrile Electric says that’s not necessarily an issue with capacity to meet the demand—it’s just out of what’s ordinary for the system.
Road conditions are expected to improve through the Christmas weekend as crews have time to plow and treat, but folks are urged to stay at home and avoid travel as long as they can until that happens. Improvement won’t come with warmer weather, as the temperature won’t get above freezing again until Tuesday.