The record setting electric demand was so high that SCE&G had to phase in rolling blackouts throughout the state. The map below shows over 18,000 outages in the Charleston area alone with a total of over 51,000 throughout the state.
I was downtown when the power went out and it was out for over two hours with lots of traffic lights out. Some kids even went to school on a three hour delay, only to find the school didn't have any power when they got there!
One day prior to the big drop in temperatures, the utility companies asked us to unplug unnecessary appliances and conserve as much as possible. While that may have helped some, the biggest draw of power was obviously for heat. With the vast array of homes that I've seen that are so drafty and poorly insulated, I'm not surprised at all that the system got overloaded. I know that even with the power on and the heat running constantly, some homes still were not comfortable! We don't have to put up with homes like these where we are hostage to extreme weather. This type of weather only amplifies the inefficiencies that go on every day in our homes that we ignore. There are so many things that can be done to reduce our utility use, starting right at home.
A well sealed and insulated home keeps the temperature for much longer, reducing heating and cooling bills and increasing comfort significantly. Weather like this allows a high performance home to really shine. While the temperature in many homes dropped significantly in that 2-3 hour window, my home may have dropped 2 or 3 degrees.
My home has undergone the High Performance Homes treatment that millions of homes throughout the country need. It has been very well insulated, the drafts have been virtually eliminated, and the heating and cooling system was properly designed and installed, among many other things. If only we all had homes like this, I bet this blackout wouldn't have happened.
