Several utility companies urged customers to cut back on power and gas use on Jan. 31 during the brutal freeze blanketing the eastern half of the country after U.S. homes and businesses used record amounts of natural gas for heating on Jan.30.
Harsh winds brought record-low temperatures across much of the Midwest, causing at least a dozen deaths and forcing residents who pride themselves on their winter hardiness to huddle indoors.
As consumers cranked up heaters to escape the bitter cold, gas demand in the lower 48 U.S. states jumped to a preliminary record high of 145.1 billion cubic feet per day on Jan. 30, according to financial data provider Refinitiv.
That topped the current all-time high of 144.6 bcfd set on Jan. 1, 2018. One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.
In Michigan, automakers agreed to interrupt production schedules through Friday after local utility Consumers Energy made an emergency appeal to curtail gas use so it could manage supplies following a fire at a gas compressor station on Wednesday.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said on Thursday it had canceled two additional shifts at its Warren Truck and Sterling Heights Assembly plants and General Motors Co. said it had suspended operations at a total of 13 Michigan plants and its Warren Tech Center.
Ford Motor Co. said it had also taken steps to reduce energy use at its four Michigan plants supplied by CMS.
Consumers, a unit of Michigan energy company CMS Energy Corp., said the Ray compressor station in Macomb County was partially back in service but urged all of its 1.8 million Michigan customers to continue their conservation efforts through Friday.
Elsewhere in Michigan, DTE Energy Inc. asked its 2.2 million power customers to reduce electric use voluntarily to help safeguard the reliability of the regional grid.
PJM, the electric grid operator for all or parts of 13 states from New Jersey to Illinois, said there were no reliability issues and noted that power demand had already peaked on Thursday below 140,000 megawatts.
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