With high temperatures and heavy humidity still blanketing the Mid-Atlantic region, Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. and the five-state, regional power pool are expecting customers to use record amounts of electricity Wednesday (7/26).

It would be the second time in two weeks that customers used more electricity than ever before on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey- Maryland Interconnection, the 11-utility power pool that includes PP&L. Prior to this July, the last time a record was broken on the regional power pool was in July 1993.

"The heat and humidity just have not let up this month," said Barry Trayers, PP&L's manager of Bulk Power System Operations. "The power plants have done an excellent job keeping pace with the demand and, unless we lose a large amount of generation today, we will continue to have enough power to meet the high demand."

Several large generating units on the power pool have returned to service and there is more power available today than there had been all week, Trayers said. The only PP&L generating unit out of service this week — Martins Creek Unit 4 — returned to operation Tuesday evening (7/25). All PP&L plants now are running.

"As always, we ask customers to use energy wisely, but to put their own health and safety before any other concern," Trayers said. "Up to this point, we have not appealed to customers to conserve electricity to help the power situation, and we're doing everything possible to avoid having to ask customers for help."

The current all-time customer use record on the power pool is 47 million kilowatt-hours, set July 14. That same day, PP&L customers used 5,779,000 kwh, setting a new summertime use record. PP&L, however, gets its highest demand for electricity in the winter. The company's all-time use record is 6,508,000 kwh, set Feb. 6, 1995.

PP&L supplies power to about 1.2 million customers in Central Eastern Pennsylvania. PJM coordinates the distribution of power for more than 22 million customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.