For the second time this week, Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. customers set a record for electricity use when the demand for power reached 6,603,000 kilowatt-hours between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Tuesday (2/6), according to preliminary figures.

Tuesday's electricity use surpassed the preliminary record of 6,588,000 kwh set Monday (2/5) between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.

Data gathering difficulties delayed PP&L operators in determining Tuesday's morning record.

"Our primary concern is to ensure that there is enough power to meet our customers' need for electricity," said Mark Heimbach, supervisor of PP&L's Power Control Center. "During both these periods of extreme cold and record use, PP&L supplied the needs of its customers.

"Determining peak use records requires calculating large amounts of data. Specific numbers typically can't be determined for a few days. We usually can make an earlier preliminary determination, but in this instance, some data we didn't anticipate pushed the numbers higher than we expected."

Prior to this week's records, the PP&L customer use mark was 6,508,000 kwh, set Feb. 6, 1995.