Initial TNG Figures From Cold Snap Coming In

Toccoa Natural Gas is reporting some initial figures regarding gas usage related to last week’s cold snap.

Officials say that, according to figures provided by the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia, during the period of 10 a.m. January 6 to 10 a.m. January 7, 9,320 Mcf of natural gas went through the city’s pipeline.

It was during that period that temperatures in Stephens County dropped into the single digits, with downtown Toccoa reaching seven degrees.

Meanwhile, that 9,320 Mcf figure is about seven times higher than the period between 10 a.m. Tuesday and 10 a.m. Wednesday when 1,304 Mcf went through the city’s pipeline.

One Mcf of natural gas equals 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

The high usage across natural gas systems across the East resulted in Toccoa Natural Gas cutting off its interruptible gas customers for a time last week to help curtail demand during the coldest weather.

TNG reported that it was the first time since 2003 that interruptible customers were cut off for any reason.

Officials with TNG could not report the last time that interruptible customers’ gas service was affected due to cold weather.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse and city commissioners praised city staff for their work during the cold snap last week at Monday’s meeting.

Meanwhile, Hart EMC reported record usage from January 6 through the morning of January 8.

Hart EMC Spokesman Keith Brown said demand broke all records.

“What we saw Tuesday was an all time record demand in the morning,” Brown said. “The loads we saw Tuesday are not expected here for another eight years. We do a 20-year projection every year on expected growth rates and demands. What we saw Tuesday was something we really didn’t expect for another seven or eight years based on regular growth.”

Brown said all of the substations in the Hart EMC service are held up despite the record usage over the 72-hour period.

(MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, contributed to this report)