Extreme heat and temperatures in July have put heavy electrical demands on the state’s electric utilities. Consumers Energy saw a record 9086 MW demand between 3 and 4 pm on Tuesday, July 17. This beat the all-time record 8930 MW set on July 21, 2011.

In June, the company broke a five-year record for June peak demand. The heavy electrical demand caused DTE Energy to implement the on/off cycling of air conditioning for its customers in July. This load-shedding technique applied to 280,000 customers in the Cool Current program who enjoy lower rates in exchange for June through October permission to be “cycled” remotely (being turned off for 15 minutes at a time).