As the current hot spell continues to bake the Valley, APS customers have set a year-to-date high in energy use. APS customers used a whopping 7,120 megawatts of power from 5 to 6 p.m. Monday.
Highs reached 118 degrees, and energy consumers blasted past last year’s peak usage of 7,050 megawatts, also on June 19.
APS spokeswoman Annie DeGraw says while the electric company has extra crews on hand to support the mass power use, electric outages still happen, and consumers should have a plan if they're left with no power for air conditioning.
“We never know what Mother Nature is going to throw at us," she said. "But if you do have a power outage, we do ask for our customers to report it to APS. Don’t assume that we know that your power is out, that’s how we get a lot of our information, from our customers.”
DeGraw also suggests keeping a “go bag” with water, food, a flashlight and phone charger to check APS outage maps online for updates.
