The heatwave hovering over Pittsburgh is straining the electric grid, leading to outages.
Many people may associate power outages with severe storms. Heat doesn’t look as dramatic, but it can still disrupt the power grid.
It’s similar to when a cell phone gets hot and its screen goes dark, said Alyssa Battaglia, external communications associate with Duquesne Light.
Heat puts stress on electrical equipment, making power plants and the wires that carry electricity less efficient. At the same time, people are using air conditioning and demanding more from the power grid. Wires can be overloaded and damaged by the combination of heat and demand.
“ When hundreds of thousands of air conditioners and heavy appliances are running at once, in addition to overnight temperatures remaining high, the grid doesn’t get a chance to cool off and recover before the next day’s demand arrives,” Battaglia said.
More than 1,500 Duquesne customers were without power on Wednesday around 4:30 p.m.
Duquesne Light’s incident management team is active this week, responding to damaged lines.
“ We try to isolate the outage by rerouting electricity, so to speak, to bring as many customers back in service as we possibly can,” Battaglia said. However, people living closest to the damage wires will likely be without power until lines can be repaired.
Duquesne Light is advising customers to visit local cooling centers if they are without air conditioning. People should hydrate and have ready an emergency kit with water bottles, nonperishable food, first-aid supplies, flashlights and a battery-powered radio in case of an outage.
People can also conserve energy by avoiding the use of appliances such as dishwashers and clothes dryers during periods of peak demand, which fall in the afternoon and evening. They can keep their homes cooler using less energy by keeping windows covered with dark curtains to block sunlight.