For the second time in two weeks, Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. customers set a record for summertime electricity use Thursday (7/27) afternoon, according to unofficial numbers.

With high temperatures and heavy humidity continuing throughout the region, customer use exceeded the summertime record of 5,777,000 kilowatt-hours between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. The former record was set July 14.

Even higher use is likely to continue until the early evening hours when demand typically drops off. Power use forecasts for Friday (7/28) are below record levels.

"We have never seen electricity use this high in the summertime, but our plants are performing very well and we are continuing to supply enough power to meet the record demands," said Barry Trayers, PP&L's manager of Bulk Power System Operations.

Customers of the five-state, regional power pool also set a new all-time electricity use record Thursday afternoon, according to unofficial numbers.

Electricity use was at record levels most of the afternoon on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, the 11-utility power pool that includes PP&L. The former record was 46,728,000 kwh, also set July 14.

Official use numbers for PP&L and PJM will be available in a day or two, Trayers said.

Despite the high summertime use, PP&L customers use more electricity in the winter. PP&L's all-time use record is 6,508,000, 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, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C.