A particularly hot and dry summer has led to increased demand for power as locals push their air conditioners to the limit, and local power authorities are asking residents to be mindful of their power usage.
Platte River Power Authority sent out a notice Monday evening that the grid was under pressure and asked residents to limit their power usage around 5:30 p.m. That time, around or slightly before large numbers of consumers begin returning home from work, while temperatures remain high, represents the highest period of demand in a given day, said Kendal Perez, spokesperson for PRPA, which serves Loveland, Fort Collins, Estes Park and Longmont.
Monday’s high demand was the highest since 2021, and coincided with a cloudy, windless day that limited solar and wind power generation at peak hours. Perez said that such conditions represented a “perfect storm” of limited power generation combined with high demand, but that forecasted high temperatures could cause similar instances in the coming weeks…