(Bloomberg) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority, a power provider to several Appalachian states, ordered rolling blackouts for a second straight day on Saturday as extreme cold sends demand for electricity soaring to record levels.

The authority, which is owned by the US government and serves 10 million people, ordered the utilities it supplies to begin outages Saturday morning after wind and cold knocked power plants off line and temperatures in Nashville hovered around 10F (-12C).

More than 280,000 homes and businesses were without electricity in Tennessee at 8:15 a.m. local time, according to Poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outages. 

“This is a challenging situation but one that we are activity managing,” Don Moul, TVA’s chief operating officer, said in a video statement. 

Power use on TVA’s system hit an all-time record for December on Friday. Its normal demand during winter is about 24 gigawatts, Moul said in an interview. On Friday, it climbed to about 32 gigawatts even after officials implemented conservation efforts. 

The utility described the outages as “short duration” and urged the public to conserve energy by lowering thermostats by one or two degrees and avoid using appliances like dishwashers until the warmest part of the day. 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.