Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project reported record power usage over the weekend. Officials said last week’s excessive heat played a large role in the increased demand.
APS’s record usage was just for 2015. Their all-time record was set in 2006. SRP, however, did set an all-time demand record both Friday and Saturday when roughly 68,000 megawatts of power was used.
Kathleen Mascarenas, an SRP spokeswoman, said the record is also unique because it happened on a weekend.
"We typically see usage go down on weekends not increase. However we just believe because the number of days the excessive heat was in place that contributed to the demand going up," said Mascarenas.
Officials with SRP and APS said infrastructure is expected to keep up with demand and don’t anticipate the need to ask customers to cut their usage.
