> Floridians Asked To Reduce Power Use During Cold Snap By Utility Companies (so the tech billionaire AI data centers can stay up)

Freeze to death for all I care, plebs!
\

As Florida residents continue to experience some of its coldest weather since 2018, utility companies are asking customers to conserve energy.

A strong cold front brought wind chills in the teens and low 20s, as well as snow flurries, to parts of the state over the weekend.

The frigid temperatures continue Sunday night into Monday with wind chills as low as 17 degrees to the upper 30s across the Tampa Bay area and a freeze warning in all counties in the region except Pinellas, according to the National Weather Service.

As of Sunday around 9:45 p.m., nearly 10,000 in Florida were without power, according to PowerOutage.us.

The majority were in Palm Beach County, where more than 5,400 had no power, the website said.

Most — about 8,100 — are Florida Power & Light Company customers, while about another 675 are Tampa Electric customers.

“Our crews are working around the clock to respond to outages caused by the strong winds and freezing temperatures impacting our service area. We appreciate your patience as our teams work to restore power as quickly as possible,” FPL said in a social media post.

The company warned people to stay away from downed power lines and to call 911 or 1-800-4OUTAGE (1-800-468-8243).

Because of the continued cold snap, Duke Energy is asking its customers in the Sunshine State to voluntarily reduce their energy usage on Monday from 5 to 9 a.m., according to a news release from the company.

“This is due to extremely cold temperatures that are driving unusually high demand for electricity across the Southeast. It is meant to help protect the grid and keep electricity flowing for as many customers as possible,” company officials said.

Duke Energy Florida, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, owns 12,300 megawatts of energy capacity, supplying electricity to 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers across a 13,000-square-mile service area in Florida.

“We know power is an essential part of our customers’ everyday lives, and we recognize that reducing electricity usage isn’t an easy ask,” Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida state president, said. “We appreciate our customers’ cooperation and understanding as we work to continue providing safe, reliable service for our more than 2 million customers during this cold spell.”

In Central Florida, the Orlando Utilities Commission also asked its residential and commercial customers to conserve energy, the company said in a social media post.

“This alert was issued because OUC is part of a larger, regional, state and a national energy network that has been under heavy strain over the past week from Winter Storm Fern, and this weekend’s arctic blast,” company officials wrote.

In North Central Florida, Ocala Mayor Ben Marciano and Newberry City Manager Jordan Marlowe asked residents to help conserve energy on Sunday between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. and Monday morning from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., WCJB said.

The city officials and companies offer their customers and residents the following tips for lowering their energy use on Monday:

    Reduce the thermostat a few degrees lower. The closer the thermostat matches outdoor temperatures, the less energy is used.
    Don’t turn off heating systems as it causes them to work harder when they’re turned back on.
    Take shorter showers to reduce hot water use.
    Avoid using major appliances such as washing machines, dryers and dishwashers early Monday morning, waiting to run them until later in the day.
    Turn off unnecessary devices, unused plug-ins and lights.
    Charge electric vehicles midday when demand is lower.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

https://patch.com/florida/southtampa/fl … -companies