Flint Energies and Georgia Power Reached Peak

WARNER ROBINS,Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The artic air last night caused several power outages all over Middle Georgia, when the temeperature dropped to a record 11 degrees.

“This morning cold snap created the highest peak for Flint Energies in it’s 75 year history,” said Flint Energies Public Relations Manager Marian McLemore. “We had 537 mega watts of power at 7 a.m.”

Georgia Power also set a record of power usage, according to Carol Boatright a spokesperson for the company.

Flint Energies had 34 outages Monday night leaving 2,800 customers in the dark.
Nearly 2,200 Georgia Power customers were left in the dark around 5:30 this morning. All of the power has been restored with the exception of 200 Georgia Power customers around 5 p.m., Tuesday.

Flint Energies say they were prepared for the freezing cold weather.

“We anticipated the high peak this morning and we actually had a plan in place to redirect power if necessary,” McLemore said.  “If an apparatus, transformer or transmission line would happen to go down, we would at least have it back up so nobody would lose power.”

Houston Medical Center was among the Flint Energies customers that lost power. But, staffers there were unaware of it, because backup generators immediately took over.

“The hospital was effected but we were able to get it, set up on an automatic transfer scheme,” said Flint Energies Supervisor of System Operations, Ricky McMichael.  “So it transferred to another circuit. They didn’t even recognize it was an outage other than just a blip in their lights.”

Both power companies say there are things you can do to keep warm, such as opening your blinds to let the sunshine in, but even that can be hard.

“When it’s this cold it’s very difficult to conserve energy, but there are ways that you can, such as make sure that there are no drafts, in your home, check around doors and windows. Make sure there’s no cold air coming in or warm heated air going out,” added McLemore.