Customers of Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. used more electricity in July than in any summer month on record.

Searing heat and high humidity in the last half of the month pushed power demand to 3,040,174,000 kilowatt-hours for July.

The company's all-time record for electricity use in a single month remains 3,537,663,000 kilowatt-hours during the bitterly cold January 1994.

"Because of the concentration of electrically heated homes in the area we serve, we traditionally see higher customer demand for electricity in the winter," explained John F. Sipics, PP&L's general manager of Power Systems Support.

During the heat wave, PP&L set summer records for electricity use in a one-hour period on three separate occasions. Marks set July 14 and July 27 were topped on Aug. 2, when demand for electricity reached 6,021,000 kilowatt-hours between 2 and 3 p.m.

"We made use of every available generating unit we have to meet the demand for electricity," Sipics said. "Power plants operated well throughout the heat wave, including our combustion turbines, which are units we run only during periods of extreme demand."

Residential customers may not see an increase in their July electric bill, compared with July 1994. Statistics from PP&L's July residential bills show that customers used an average of 790 kilowatt-hours this year, compared with 854 kilowatt-hours in July 1994.

The average residential bill for PP&L customers in July 1995 was $65.22, down from the average of $70.56 last July.

"The heat wave spanned two billing cycles," Sipics explained. "The bills many of our customers are receiving now reflect their usage in late June and the early part of July, when temperatures generally were below normal. Customers likely will see some effects from the heat wave in their next bill, but it's too early to project how it might compare to last August's bill."

PP&L serves 1.2 million customers in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania.