HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - With the extreme cold, the Tennessee Valley Authority is anxious to avoid any service outages.
A previous voluntary curtailment of energy usage was issued by TVA when temps hit the teens and single digits across the Valley.
"Just use your electricity for those necessary things like heat and light, but if you're not in a room -- turn that light off, maybe wait until this cold period is over before we do lots of laundry -- things like that," said Joe Gehrdes with Huntsville Utilities.
Utility companies say keeping your thermostat at 68 degrees is the optimal temperature when trying to be energy-efficient.
It's the things we sometimes take for granted, like cooking or doing laundry. Huntsville Utilities asks you to watch your energy usage during the peak hours of 5 a.m. - 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
"Our neighbor utilities are experiencing the same high demand, it's across the entire Tennessee Valley," said Gehrdes. "So everyone is having the same sorts of issues that we're having and we have seen some demand related outages."
Keeping electric usage at an absolute minimum is what utility companies say will help avoid any service outages and the high demand at the same time.