It’s safe to run those electric appliances again.

For now.

With temperatures dipping into single digits and taxing the electricity supply, the Tennessee Valley Authority issued a call early Tuesday morning for its customers throughout the seven-state region it serves to reduce power consumption. Then, shortly after 11 a.m., local TVA power distributor Bowling Green Municipal Utilities issued a notice that consumers could return to normal use of electricity.

Cooperation by more than 8.5 million electric consumers in the TVA service area in reducing their use of electricity during the power shortage helped prevent the situation from becoming more critical, according to a BGMU news release.

The original notice to reduce power consumption came about because of extreme conditions, according to Scott Brooks, a member of TVA’s public relations staff.

“When temperatures fall, we tend to see demand increase,” Brooks said. “There are a number of factors, including weekends and holidays, that can impact the numbers. Our peaks in the winter tend to be during the mornings when folks get up and turn up the thermostat, turn on the coffee pot, etc.

“We certainly still have enough power to meet demand, but when demand goes over 30,000 megawatts, as it did (Tuesday) morning, we need to have a reserve margin where we can still meet demand if a nuclear unit trips offline, for example.”

Brooks noted that the 30,000-megawatt figure was approaching TVA’s capacity. He said the public power provider has a generation capacity of 32,000 megawatts plus more than 3,500 megawatts in power purchase agreements from other sources.

He said peak demand in milder winter weather is typically in the 25,000-megawatt range, so the spike Tuesday morning was high enough to trigger some extreme measures.

The notice Tuesday morning called on residential, commercial and industrial customers to reduce power usage by postponing use of electric appliances during the peak period of 6 to 10 a.m. It also asked consumers to adjust thermostats to 60 degrees where possible and turn off non-essential lights and appliances.

While the 60-degree mark is extreme, BGMU Customer Relations & Communications Manager Christy Twyman said any reduction can help reduce power use.

“We realize that (60 degrees) can be uncomfortable for a lot of people,” Twyman said. “But cutting back one or two degrees will help. It (reduction in power use) is pretty much to avoid outages.”

With temperatures expected to dip into single digits again Thursday and Friday, Brooks said TVA will be keeping an eye on peak demand.

“It’s not so much about temperature as it is demand, but the two are certainly related,” he said. “These voluntary measures tend to be requested when lows dip into the teens and single digits on a non-holiday weekday.”

Brooks said another request for customers to reduce power consumption is “always a possibility,” but he said: “It depends on our available operating units, the temperatures at the peak periods and other factors that could affect our system.”