Air conditioners in Sarnia were hard at work over the weekend.
Bluewater Power CEO Janice McMichael-Dennis said the utility saw high demand due to the hot weather.
"On Saturday at about 6 p.m., we reached about 181 megawatts, and if you put that in comparison, just the week before where we did not have the extreme temperatures, we were sitting around 112 megawatts," she said. "So a significant increase over the weekend due to people running those air conditioners and trying to keep cool and comfortable."
McMichael-Dennis said the usage number compares to their overall peak years ago of 225. She's expecting the utility will hit its peak usage so far this year Monday afternoon.
"Normally you have higher levels when you have a heatwave during the week, so I'm suspecting that by 5 or 6 [p.m.] this afternoon, if the temperatures don't break, we will probably hit our peak for this year so far."
McMichael-Dennis said adjusting a central air unit by one or two degrees can make a difference in a customer's power bill later in the month.
"But of course it all comes down to customer comfort and what they're willing to pay for that. There's always a lag though -- you make the decision to turn your air on this weekend, but you might not get your bill for 30 days, so it's always that lag to say 'oh my goodness, what happened?' Well 30 days ago is when you hit the peak by increasing your air."
Temperatures in Sarnia topped 30 C on both Saturday and Sunday. This week's forecast is calling for daily highs in the mid to high 20s.
---
Balloons cause small power outage in Sarnia
Around 30 Bluewater Power customers had no power for nearly five hours Sunday afternoon due to some balloons that got caught in the power lines.
McMichael-Dennis said it happened near the Vidal Street Tim Horton's at around 5:30 p.m. and that power was restored at 10:15 p.m.
She said balloons actually cause quite a few outages every year.
"Over North America every year, balloons are responsible for thousands of power outages. So we've actually had three this year, which is typically more than what you'd see for Bluewater Power -- we normally have one or two a year."
McMichael-Dennis said while balloons are lovely and look festive when released, when they hit power lines, it's always a bad result.
https://twitter.com/BluewaterPower/status/1401875588076478467