Delaware residents are settling back into normal routines after two days of brutally cold weather that produced record low temperatures.
The arctic weather was driving electricity consumption to record levels, putting extra stress on the region’s power grid operations.
According to Delmarva Power spokesperson Nick Morici, that forced utilities to ask customers to conserve energy during the cold snap.
“By each and every one of our customers trying to volunteer to do their part a little bit by reducing their energy consumption it really does make the grid that more safer during times of great need such as the ones we were experiencing due to the cold weather," he said.
Demand remained high through Wednesday morning when grid operator PJM Interconnection advised Delmarva that customers could resume normal usage habits.
Morici says that despite the frigid temperatures, things remained relatively calm.
“Really we saw minimal outages," said Morici, "which is always something that’s good for all of our customers: minimal outages and the duration of outages that did happen were not long. The cold was just that – cold. We were lucky in a way that we didn’t see other elements in the cold such as stormy weather and what not.”
AAA Mid-Atlantic is also seeing requests for assistance return to more typical levels. The organization received 363 roadside service requests in Delaware on Tuesday; over eighty percent higher than the number of requests the same day a week ago. The majority of requests were for trouble with car batteries, which at near-zero degree temperatures can lose up to sixty percent of their strength.
Over 20,000 roadside assistance requests were issued in the Delaware, New Jersey and the Philadelphia region on Monday and Tuesday.